MAR  181924 


Division      IBS  4  SO 


Section 


»wciL  iiiW" 


Who  Wrote  the  Bible? 

Has  God  Spoken,  or  Only  Man? 

(Formerly  "Visions  and  Voices,  or  Who  Wrote  the  Bible f") 

By 

CHARLES  A.  BLANCHARD,  D.D. 

President     Wheaton     College,     President     Chicago     Hebrew 
Mission,     Ex-President    National     Christian    Association, 
Ex-President  Federation  of  Illinois  Collegics,  Director 
Chicago     Tract    Society,     Ex-President     College 
Section   of  Illinois  State   Teachers'  Associa- 
tion,   Ex-President    Colleg^e    Section    of 
National  Teachers'  Association,  etc. 


h 


Chicago 

THE    BIBLE    INSTITUTE    COLPORTAGE    ASSN. 

826    North    La    Salle    Street 


COPYRIGHT,   1917,  by 

CHRISTIAN   ALLIANCE  PUB.   CO. 

BROOKLYN 

Charles  A.  Blanchard,  Owner 


Printed  in  U.  S.  A. 


Dedicated 

to  my  dear  friends 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Elbridge  Torrey 

Earnest  Witnesses 

for  the  truth 

and  the  Word  of  God 


The  Works  of 

Charles  A.  Blanchard 

Published  by 
THE   BIBLE   INSTITUTE   COLPORTAGE 
ASSOCIATION 
826  N.  La  Salle  Street,  Chicago,  III. 
BOOKS 
GETTING  THINGS   FROM   GOD.     The  mean- 
ing and  possibilities   of  prayer  demonstrated  in 
personal   experience.     Paper   covers,   75c;  cloth, 
$1.25,  postage  extra  (4  to  8c). 

LIGHT  ON  THE  LAST  DAYS.  Familiar  talks 
on  "ivhat  shall  shortly  come  to  pass."  Paper 
covers,  65c;  cloth,  $1.10,  postage  extra  (4  to  6c). 

AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  GOSPEL.  Jonah  shoivn 
to  be  a  surprisingly  up-to-date  prophet.  Paper 
covers,  35c;  cloth,  /5c. 

WHO  WROTE  THE  BIBLE?     Proofs  that   God 

has  spoken  all  these  'words,  and  not  man  merely. 

Paper   covers,    75c;    cloth,   $1.00,   postage    extra 

(4  to  8c). 
METHOD  IN  BIBLICAL  CRITICISM.    Common 

sense  and  honesty  as  opposed  to  science  falsely 

so-called.    10c. 

TRACTS 
CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AND  THE  WORD  OF  GOD. 

A  sober  examination.      Doz.,   25c;    100,   $1.50. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  AND  THE  THEATRE.  The  Prob- 
lem and  its  proper  solution.      Doz.,  6c;    100,  40c. 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE  HOME.  On  family  worship, 
the  need,  method,  and  practicability.  Doz.,  10c; 
100,    80c. 

THE  BIBLE  TEACHING  CONCERNING   SICKNESS. 

Especially  for  Christians.      Doz.,    10c;    100,   80c. 
WHAT    TO    DO    WITH    TROUBLES.      The    believer's 

method  of  relief.      Doz.,   10c;    100,   80c. 
WHAT    IS     CONFESSION     OF     SIN?       What?       To 

whom?     How?     3c;    doz.,   25c;    100,   $1.50. 

THE  VICTORIOUS  LIFE.  It  is  commanded,  there- 
fore possible.     Doz.,   20c;    100,   $1.50. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 
Preface  ••  —  —  -•""■""  y 
Proof  of  the  Bible  as  the  most  popular  and 
enduring  book— Assaults  upon  its  credibility 
reveal  no  substantial  error— Its  overshadow- 
ing importance  in  alone  dealing  with  vital 
questions  and  themes — Its  relationship  to  God, 
to  the  human  soul,  to  eternity  unique  in  teach- 
ing and  literature— It  alone  transforms  from 
savagery  to  gentleness  and  love— Countless 
thousands  have  suffered  and  died  in  its  de- 
fense— Many  present-day  Biblical^  teachers 
and  professors  allied  with  agnosticism — Al- 
legiance to  the  Word  an  urgent,  solemn  duty 
to  all  who  honor  God— The  Bible  the  only 
hope  of  the  human  race, 

CHAP. 

I — Importance  of  the  Question  -  -  -  I3 
Value  of  memorizing  Scripture — Indiffer- 
ence to  Biblical  authorship,  "What  difference 
does  it  make?" — Historical  accuracy  a  neces- 
sary test — The  Bible  the  only  revelation  from 
God — Comparison  with  so-called  sacred  books 
— What  if  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Eastern 
World  supplanted  the  Bible?— What  infidels 
dare  not  assail — When  infidels  keep  silence — 
Marvelous  changes  wrought  by  the  Word  of 
God. 

II — The  Bible  Statement  as  to  the  Facts  ;  or, 
What  the  Bible  Says  for  Itself      -      -        28 

External  and  internal  evidence — Wrong 
principles  of  examination — The  Bible's  amaz- 
ing survival  of  time  and  stress — Vast  present- 
day  circulation — Its  preeminence  above  all 
books— Two  thousand  New  Testament  manu- 
scripts extant— "The  Lord  spake,"  "The  Lord 
said" — Mosaic  authorship  proved  beyond  doubt 


4  Contents 

— Scripture's    unrivaled    diction    and    style — 
Undertone  of  Divine  authority  throughout. 
Ill — How  Could  God  Write  a  Book?      -      -      43 

Inspiration  simple  and  natural — The  source 
of  all  human  communication — Could  sinful 
men  write  such  a  book? — Books  men  write 
usually  die;  the  Bible  endures — Himian^  au- 
thorship faced  with  a  thousand  difficulties — 
The  Bible  the  Word  of  God. 
IV — Visions  and  Voices So 

"A  more  sure  word  of  prophecy" — Mr. 
Spurgeon  on  evidence — The  promises  of  God 
abide — Their  impressiveness  never  wanes — 
Speaking  with  tongues — Paul's  estimate  of 
the  gift — Its  purpose  nearly  if  not  altogether 
useless — Visions  and  voices  pass  away,  the 
Word  remains — Death-bed  repentances. 
V — Should  We  Say  That  We  Believe  or  That 
We  Know? 62 

God  has  made  it  possible  for  us  to  "Know" 
— Origin  of  Locke's  "Human  Understanding" 
— Sources  of  knowledge,  seen  and  unseen — The 
needle  and  the  anvil — The  cross  of  Christ — 
Napoleon's  belief  and  testimony — Grave  duty 
of  those  who  hold  the  faith — Speak  the  Word 
of  God  faithfully. 
VI — What  Do  We  Mean  by  Inspiration?      -     73 

True  meaning  of  "Inspiration"  oftentimes 
obscured — Careless  use  of  words — Men's  con- 
victions as  shifting  sands — What  "Inspiration" 
means — The  inspiration  of  illumination,  of 
suggestion,  of  words — Proofs  of  inspiration 
many  and  infallible — ^Unique  character  of  the 
Bible — Its  mighty  achievements  must  rest  on 
the  supernatural. 
VII— What  Is  a  Miracle?      -      -      -      -      82 

The  word  defined — The  conceit  of  the  pres- 
ent age — The  dangers  of  great  scientific  at- 
tainment— Professed  atheists  now  compara- 
tively few — Government  of  universe  by  exact 
and  intelligent  laws  cannot  be  denied — Belief 


Contents  5 

in  God,  belief  in  miracles  a  necessary  conse- 
quence— Can  man  place  a  limit  to  God's  pow- 
er?— His  Omnipotence — Jonah's  mission  to 
Nineveh,  its  purpose  and  threatened  failure — 
The  miracle  lost  in  the  greater  issue — A  wide 
view  of  the  subject — ^Jewish  commemoration 
of  the  escape  from  Egypt — Every  synagogue 
throughout  the  world  bears  testimony  today 
to  miracles  wrought  in  Egypt. 

VIII — Is  THE  Age  of  Miracles  Past?  -  -  99 
Miracle-working  today  a  live  fact — Deliver- 
ances from  demoniacal  power  very  real — Com- 
parison with  physical  healing — The  outward 
miracles  of  Our  Lord  a  means  to  an  end — 
Cleansing  of  the  Spirit  a  greater  miracle — 
Miracles  of  healing  today  innumerable  and 
carefully  attested — The  remarkable  case  of 
Jenny  Smith — God  can  and  will  work  miracles 
when  necessary — The  discrimination  of  God — 
Dishonoring  unbelief  stays  the  Almighty  Hand 
— His  rewards  and  wonder-working  power  for 
those  who  see  His  face,  hear  and  obey  His 
voice. 

IX — The  Man  Christ  Jesus  -  -  -  -118 
His  dual  nature  clearly  set  forth  in  Scrip- 
ture— The  Man  Christ  Jesus,  the  everlasting 
Father — ^A  familiar  objection  stated — Christ's 
authority  for  Scripture — Can  modern  learning 
overrule  Omniscience? — Old  Testament  a  bat- 
tleground— Our  Lord's  repeated  use  of  Old 
Testament  Scriptures — Quoted  in  conflict  with 
Satan— The  authoritative,  "It  is  written,"^  "It 
is  written" — Christ  extended  and  intensified 
the  law — "I  came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil" 
— The  Divine  command  was  to  "Search  the 
Scriptures" — Would  Christ  urge  the  study  of 
error  and  misrepresentation? 

X — Did  the  Prophets  Foretell?      -      -      -131 
The  work  of  the  prophets — They  prophesied 
both   doom   and  deliverance — The  judgments 
they     foretold     accepted     without     question — 


6  Contents 

Babylon  a  widespread  desolation — Tyre  a  col- 
lection of  miserable  huts — A  great  Sacrifice 
for  sin  foreshadowed  from  the  earliest  times — 
Until  the  coming  of  Jesus  sacrifices  were  in 
universal  use — Why  then  have  blood  offerings 
now  ceased  throughout  the  entire  world? — 
Isaiah  fifty-three  a  full-length  portrait  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  a  sufferer — Isaiah  also  foretells  Him 
as  reigning  King — The  case  of  the  Jews — 
Palestine  to  be  redeemed — Jesus  will  come  to 
reign. 

XI — The  Pickax  and  Spade  .  -  -  -  142 
Geology  reveals  much  of  the  thought  of 
God  in  creation — The  work  of  excavation  in 
Bible  lands  of  recent  development — Thousands 
of  inscriptions  unearthed — Restored  monuments 
confirm  Bible  narratives — In  many  instances 
Higher  Criticism  directly  refuted — No  tablet 
or  inscription  yet  found  that  contradicts  a  sin- 
gle Biblical  statement  of  fact — The  testimony 
of  pickax  and  spade  not  yet  concluded — Great- 
er and  more  important  discoveries  not  improb- 
able. 

XII — Why  Do  We  Believe  the  Miracles  of  the 
Bible  to  Have  Been  Wrought?      -      -        150 

The  testimony  of  Jesus  to  miracles — The 
miracle  of  Jonah  used  as  a  warning  to  His 
disciples  of  His  approaching  death — Could 
Christ  trifle  with  historic  fact  on  so  solemn 
an  occasion? — The  miracles  of  Jesus  certified 
to  His  Divine  nature — "If  you  do  not  believe 
Me,  believe  the  works" — The  history  of  the 
Christian  church  a  miracle — Missionary  ef- 
fort a  miracle — The  church  built  and  re- 
ceived on  the  truth  of  supernatural  works 
— Sharp  distinction  between  the  miracles  of  the 
Bible  and  e.g.,  spiritualistic  "miracles"  of  our 
time — The  difference  between  daylight  and 
darkness — The  apostles  earnestly  and  at  once 
declared  and  preached  the  resurrection. 


Contents  7 

XIII — Modern  Miracles  -  -  .  .  _  j5i 
Alleged  miracles  of  Spiritualism,  Roman 
Catholicism  and  Christian  Science — Demons 
have  power  to  work  miracles  (Rev.  13:13)  — 
Humble  souls  perhaps  permitted  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  work  signs  and  wonders — 
We  are  surrounded  by  spirit  intelligences — 
"Miracles"  frequently  no  more  than  momen- 
tary ecstasies  or  other  forms  of  excitement — 
Systems  of  men  rather  than  of  Christ — Do  not 
lead  to  holiness  of  character — Our  Saviour 
outlawed  by  secret  societies — The  miracles  of 
the  Bible  lead  to  repentance,  to  restitution, 
to  faith  and  joy — Fictitious  miracles  lead 
merely  to  wonder — "Some  people  so  consti- 
tuted that  they  can  believe  anything  except  the 
truth" — Unbelievers  rarely  acquainted  with 
God's  Word — The  natural  wonders  of  the 
Bible. 

XIV— A  Few  Words  in  Conclusion  -  -  178 
God's  providence  to  the  author  in  enabling 
him  to  leave  the  testimony  of  this  book — 
His  desire  that  others  should  share  his  faith 
in  the  disputed  things  of  Scripture— Belief  in 
the  miracles  leaves  little  room  for  doubt  in 
anything  else— A  privilege  to  share  these  re- 
flections with  other  fellow  travelers  to  the 
judgment  bar  of  God — Visions  and  voices 
less  important  than  the  precious  words  God 
has  written  for  our  learning — We  may  say 
"I  know"  rather  than  "I  believe"— May  the 
Book  become  more  and  more  the  man  of  our 
counsel,  the  light  to  our  feet,  the  lamp  to 
our  path — "Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away 
but  My  Word  shall  not  pass  away.'* 


PREFACE. 

The  Bible  is  the  most  popular  book  in  the 
world.  Books  usually  die  in  their  youth,  but 
the  Bible,  begun  about  four  thousand  years 
ago  and  completed  nearly  two  thousand  years 
ago,  seems  endowed  with  perpetual  life.  Last 
year  (191 5)  there  were  over  twenty-nine  mil- 
lion copies  of  Scripture,  either  whole  or  in 
part,  printed.    This  is  in  itself  a  miracle. 

The  Bible  is  the  only  book  in  the  world 
which  is  really  up  to  date.  It  has  been  scru- 
tinized and  assailed  as  no  other  book  ever  was, 
yet  it  has  never  been  convicted  of  substantial 
error.  Books  of  science  and  history  are  con- 
tinually shown  to  be  mistaken  or  defective, 
but  the  most  that  critics  of  the  Bible  have 
been  able  to  do  has  been  to  find  some  errors 
in  transcription  of  spelling  or  numbers. 

The  Bible  alone  attempts  to  answer  the 
great  questions  natural  to  the  human  soul  and 
which  every  sane  man  must  ask.  *Tf  a  man 
die,  shall  he  live  again?"  "How  can  a  man 
be  just  with  God?"  "Wherewithal  shall  a 
young  man  cleanse  his  way?"  "Where  shall  I 
spend  eternity?" 

The  Bible  is  the  only  book  that  transforms 
human  character.    Men  and  women  by  thou- 


lo  Preface 

sands  have  been  lifted  from  baseness  to  nobil- 
ity of  life  by  the  Bible.  Many  are  alive  today 
and  ready  to  testify  to  the  facts  in  the  case. 

Communities  and  nations  have  in  like  man- 
ner been  transformed  by  the  Bible.  We  can 
trace  the  course  of  naked,  man-eating  savage 
tribes  from  barbarism  to  gentleness  and  civil- 
ization through  the  influence  of  the  blessed 
Word  of  the  Bible  and  its  effect  on  savagery, 
superstition,  vice  and  crime. 

It  is  not  strange  that  such  a  book  should  be 
assailed.  We  do  not  wonder  when  we  read 
that  its  translators,  teachers  and  followers 
have  been  strangled,  beheaded,  burned, 
drowned  and  by  thousands  have  died  for  this 
Wonderful  Book  on  bloody  fields. 

It  is,  however,  strange  that  today  men 
who  profess  to  believe  the  Bible  and  are  paid 
for  teaching  it  should  join  hands  with  the 
Paines,  Voltaires  and  Ingersolls  of  our  race 
to  destroy  the  faith  of  the  people  in  this  Book. 
I  do  not  understand  their  motives,  but  I  do 
know  the  deadly  work  they  are  doing,  and  I 
entreat  all  men  who  honor  God  or  wish  well 
to  humanity  to  resist  their  desperately  evil  as- 
saults on  this  the  only  hope  of  the  human  race. 

The  Author. 


Visions  and  Voices 

OR 

Who  Wrote  the  Bible? 


CHAPTER  I. 

IMPORTANCE    OF   THE    QUESTION. 

Dr.  Greene  of  Princeton  University  said 
years  ago  in  one  of  his  great  addresses  re- 
specting the  authenticity  and  integrity  of  the 
Bible  that  formerly  the  question  respecting 
that  Book  was,  "What  does  the  Bible  mean?" 
"At  the  present  time/'  said  he,  "the  question 
is  far  more  fundamental.  It  is,  What  is  the 
Bible?"  The  view  which  most  of  us  of  ma- 
ture age  were  taught  when  we  were  children 
was  that  the  Bible  was  God's  Word.  We  were 
not  taught  to  discriminate  between  inspiration 
of  illumination,  inspiration  of  suggestion, 
plenary  inspiration  and  inspiration  verbal. 
Wc  simply  believed  that  God  had  revealed 
His  will  in  His  Word.  In  those  days  we  used 
to  memorize  large  portions  of  the  Book.  In 
our  Sabbath  schools  this  was  the  method  usu- 


14  Visions  and  Voices 

ally  pursued.  That  was  before  the  days  of 
pupils'  helps,  teachers'  helps,  superintendents' 
helps  and  helps  of  all  kinds.  I  do  not  here 
raise  the  question  of  relative  values.  Un- 
doubtedly there  have  been  improvements  in 
certain  particulars.  It  is  doubtful,  however, 
whether  all  of  them  combined  are  sufficient  to 
fill  up  the  gap  left  by  the  failure  to  memo- 
rize. In  one  of  our  conferences  held  recently. 
Rev.  J.  D.  Williams  of  St.  Paul  set  the  entire 
company  to  memorizing  the  first  chapter  of 
Hebrews.  I  think  without  exception  it  was 
found  to  be  a  delightful  exercise.  Personally 
I  can  testify  that  I  greatly  enjoyed  it. 

This  question  aside,  however.  The  fact  of 
which  I  wish  specially  to  speak  is  that  in  those 
early  days  the  Bible  was  believed  to  be  a  word 
vvhich  God  had  spoken  for  the  guidance  of 
His  people.  At  the  present  time  this  view  is 
doubted  or  denied  by  many  who  profess  to  be 
teachers  of  the  Book.  I  remember  to  have 
heard  a  minister  in  a  local  conference  say  not 
many  years  ago,  "We  must  sift  the  errors  out 
of  the  Bible."  This  gentleman  could  not 
speak  English  thoroughly  well,  but  he  felt  en- 
tirely competent  to  correct  the  writings  of 
men  who  finished  their  work  thousands  of 
years  before  he  was  born.     It  would  seem  that 


Importance  of  the  Question  15 

such  a  statement  would  be  looked  upon  as  an 
empty  trifling  with  a  serious  subject  and  al- 
lowed to  pass  as  such.  Unfortunately  it  is  not 
so,  but  many  men  who  seemingly  should  know 
better  are  affected  by  such  words  as  these. 

"What  Difference  Does  It  Make?" 

Every  now  and  again  when  some  of  these 
persons  who  are  unsettling  the  foundations  of 
faith  in  the  church  are  called  to  account,  they 
say,  "Well,  what  difference  does  it  make  who 
wrote  the  Bible?  It  is  good  anyway.  Why 
peril  the  whole  Book  by  insisting  upon  author- 
ship? You  cannot  certainly  prove  that  the 
Book  is  from  God.  Whether  it  was  from 
Him  or  from  a  man,  what  odds  does  it  make, 
provided  it  is  true?  If  the  ten  command- 
ments require  righteousness  and  condemn  sin, 
how  does  it  concern  us  whether  Moses  wrote 
them  or  some  other  good  man  or  even  a  bad 
man?"  It  is  noticeable  that  those  who  hold 
this  view  of  authorship  have  very  loose  views 
as  to  the  portion  of  the  Bible  which  is  true. 
Beginning  by  denying  that  it  is  from  God  and 
saying  that  it  makes  no  difference  whether  it 
is  from  Him  or  not  if  it  be  true,  they  proceed 
to  deny  that  it  is  true.  The  books  of  Moses 
are  a  pious  forgery.    Historic  and  scientific 


1 6  '     Visions  and  Voices 

errors  abound  in  them.  The  book  of  Job  has 
no  historic  value.  Job  was  not  a  historic 
character.  The  book  of  Job  is  a  production 
of  the  imagination,  etc.,  etc.,  and  this  class  of 
men  who  began  years  ago  with  the  Old  Testa- 
ment have  now  proceeded  to  question  and 
deny  the  books  of  the  New.  One  of  them  is 
reported  to  have  said,  "We  have  finished  up 
the  Old  Testament,  now  we  will  take  hold  of 
the  New."  What  he  seemed  to  mean  was  that 
the  alleged  "reverent  and  free  criticism"  of 
our  time  had  proved  the  Old  Testament  to  be 
unhistoric,  unauthentic  and  valueless  as  an 
authority  and  that  this  same  "free  and  rever- 
ent" criticism  was  about  to  do  for  the  New 
Testament  what  it  had  already  accomplished 
for  the  Old. 

Moral  and  Spiritual  Teaching. 

Those  who  thus  trifle  with  the  Word  of  God 
are  accustomed  to  say  that  the  Bible  was  not 
intended  to  teach  history  and  science  but 
morals  and  religion ;  that  it  was  not  intended 
to  show  men  "how  the  heavens  go  but  how  to 
go  to  heaven."  The  inference  expressed  or 
implied  is  that  if  the  Bible  states  falsehoods 
respecting  history  and  teaches  error  in  sci- 
ence, nevertheless  it  may  be  a  very  excellent 


Importance  of  the  Question  17 

guide  to  conduct;  that  if  it  says  the  heavens 
go  as  they  do  not  go,  it  may,  nevertheless, 
teach  men  how  to  go  to  heaven  successfully. 
Such  teaching  as  this  seems  to  entirely  for- 
get the  solidarity  which  belongs  to  human 
character  and  human  production.  If  a  man 
were  known  to  be  entirely  honest  in  one  sec- 
tion of  his  character,  and  careless,  untruthful, 
dishonest  and  dishonorable  in  another,  the  fact 
that  he  was  in  part  righteous  would  not  favor 
his  standing  in  the  community  as  an  honest 
man  and  would  unquestionably  throw  doubt 
on  everything  that  he  might  say  or  do.  It 
would  be  an  impossible  defense  for  him  to 
say,  "I  tell  the  truth  on  moral  subjects,  I  only 
misrepresent  and  falsify  when  I  come  to 
questions  of  history  or  science." 

That  the  Bible  is  not  intended  chiefly  as  a 
textbook  in  human  learning  is  imquestionably 
true ;  but  if  the  Bible  is  untruthful  or  untrust- 
worthy in  its  statements  on  this  subject,  no 
thoroughly  sane  man  will  accept  it  as  an  au- 
thority regarding  conduct  and  destiny.  It  has 
what  might  be  called  an  average  value.  This 
is  true  of  any  book ;  it  is  also  true  of  the  Bible. 
"From  one,  know  all"  is  an  old  motto  which 
cannot  be  pressed  too  far  but  which  certainly 
has  an  application  here.     If  the  Pentateuch 


1 8  Visions  and  Voices 

throughout  represents  itself  as  the  word  of 
Moses  when  in  fact  it  is  a  compilation  of 
documents  the  oldest  of  which  was  written 
five  hundred  years  after  Moses  died,  then  its 
pretense  to  Mosaic  authorship  is  a  lie.  The 
fact  that  men  who  criticize  the  Bible  do  not 
use  this  term  freely  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  omit  it.  Lying  is  lying  no  matter  what 
it  is  called,  and  for  men  to  declare  that  repre- 
sentations which  the  Bible  makes  concerning 
itself  are  not  trustworthy,  are  not  reliable, 
means  simply  that  they  are  not  true.  It  is 
simpler  and  better  that  men  should  say  pre- 
cisely what  they  mean  in  a  language  which  can 
be  understood. 

In  the  book  of  Job  we  are  told  that  there  was 
a  man  in  the  land  of  Uz  who  bore  this  name. 
His  character  is  described  and  events  are  set 
forth  said  to  have  occurred  during  a  portion 
of  his  life.  There  is  no  hint  in  the  book  from 
beginning  to  end  that  the  writing  is  a  parable 
or  consists  of  any  other  form  of  symbolic 
teaching.  The  teaching  is  clear,  "there  was  a 
man  in  the  land  of  Uz  whose  name  was  Job." 

So  Jonah  is  named  in  his  own  prophecy  as 
a  man.  The  work  which  he  was  called  to  do 
is  specified.  His  attempt  to  avoid  that  task  is 
described.     His  after  obedience  is  set  forth 


Importance  of  the  Question  19 

and  the  results  thereof.  Now  if  one  man 
should  speak  to  another  man  sitting  in  his  own 
parlor  as  the  Bible  speaks  of  these  men,  not 
to  mention  others,  and  if  thereafter  it  should 
be  found  that  there  were  no  such  individuals 
as  were  named,  that  no  such  events  as 
he  declared  to  have  occurred  ever  took 
place,  he  would  be  looked  upon  simply  as  a 
liar.  What  is  more,  he  would  be  one,  and  if 
his  neighbors  learned  the  facts  in  the  case  his 
character  for  truth  and  veracity  would  be 
destroyed. 

Yes  or  No. 

Is  the  Bible  God's  word  or  man's  word  or 
an  indefinite,  undefined  mixture  of  the  two? 
This  is  a  plain  man's  question  and  an  honest 
scholar  should  give  a  straightforward  answer. 
Millions  of  human  beings  have  gone  into 
eternity  relying  upon  the  representations  made 
in  this  Book.  Right  or  wrong,  good  or  ill, 
they  have  believed  that  they  have  here  a  reve- 
lation from  Almighty  God.  A  dying  man  has 
a  right  to  the  truth.  A  living  man  has  a  right 
to  it,  but  to  deceive  one  who  is  pushing  off 
from  the  world  into  the  vast  and  unknown 
eternity  seems  to  be  a  specially  wicked  trans- 
action.    It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  men 


20  Visions  and  Voices 

who  profess  to  expound  the  Scriptures  should 
make  up  their  minds  in  regard  to  this  matter. 
The  question  of  the  authorship  of  the  Bible 
is  not  an  unimportant  question.  It  deserves 
a  simple,  straightforward  answer  which  a 
common  man  can  understand.  To  throw  a 
flood  of  ink  into  the  question  as  the  cuttlefish 
darkens  the  water  when  pursued  by  an  enemy, 
is  a  procedure  which  cannot  be  admired  from 
the  standpoint  of  Christianity  or  manhood. 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  ministers  are 
taking  texts  from  the  Bible  from  which  to 
preach  sermons.  Millions  of  children  are  be- 
ing taught  in  our  Lord's  Day  schools  that  in 
some  way  or  other  this  Book  contains  a  reve- 
lation from  God  which  ought  to  control  their 
lives.  Tens  of  thousands  of  simple  men  be- 
lieve that  if  they  could  adjust  their  lives  to 
this  Book  they  would  get  help  against  their 
sins.  Tens  of  thousands  of  sick  and  burdened 
people  read  the  words  of  Jesus,  the  Psalms  of 
David  or  the  Gospel  of  John  and  find  rest  and 
comfort  because  they  believe  these  words  to 
be  divine.  These  people  are  living  in  a  fool's 
paradise  if  that  Book  is  not  what  it  professes 
to  be.  No  man  has  a  right  to  say  that  the 
question  of  authorship  is  unimportant.  No 
man  has  a  right  to  say  that  the  truth  is  true 


Importance  of  the  Question  21 

no  matter  who  says  it  and  that  therefore  we 
may  dismiss  the  question  of  BibUcal  author- 
ship as  unimportant.  If  God  wrote  this  Book, 
then  men  can  rely  upon  it.  If  man  wrote  the 
Book,  men  cannot  rely  upon  it,  for  while  it 
may  be  true  in  streaks  or  spots  it  is  not  re- 
liable as  a  book  and  therefore  should  never 
be  placed  before  the  public  as  a  safe  guide  to 
conduct.  Whatever  men  may  hold  respect- 
ing the  authorship  of  the  Bible,  they  have  no 
right  to  hold,  to  believe  or  to  teach  that  the 
question  of  its  origin  is  an  unimportant  one. 

Bible  or  Nothing. 

Among  the  many  reasons  for  the  importance 
of  this  question  is  the  fact  that  if  the  Bible 
is  not  a  revelation  from  God  then  we  have  no 
such  revelation.  There  have  been  many  so- 
called  sacred  books.  The  scholarship  of  the 
world  has  been  digging  at  them  for  a  hundred 
years  or  more.  Many  of  them  have  been  trans- 
lated into  English.  All  of  them  have  a  clear 
and  well-defined  character.  The  Koran,  the 
bible  of  the  Mohammedans,  is  accessible  to 
anyone  who  Vvishes  to  know  what  it  teaches. 
Max  Mueller's  work  on  the  holy  books  of 
India  is  known  to  all  scholars.  Missionaries 
have  been  working  in  China  for  more  than  a 


22  Visions  and  Voices 

hundred  years,  and  the  teachings  of  Confucius 
are  as  accessible  as  the  orations  of  Wendell 
Phillips  or  Charles  Sumner.  From  time  to 
time  learned  men  from  pagan  lands  have 
visited  our  country  for  the  purpose  of  adver- 
tising and  recommending  their  religions.  We 
have  already  quite  a  large  number  of  joss- 
houses  and  Buddhist  temples  in  this  country. 
These  writings  can  be  tested  and  compared 
with  the  Bible  as  to  their  doctrine  of  man,  of 
sin,  and  of  salvation.  Their  teachings  con- 
cerning the  character  and  state  of  women  and 
children  can  be  ascertained.  World  study  has 
now  gone  forward  so  far  that  the  home  life, 
the  political  institutions,  the  industrial  condi- 
tions, the  mercantile  customs,  the  educational 
view  of  heathen  nations,  can  be  known  as  well 
as  those  of  our  own  country. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  there  has  never 
been  revealed  in  connection  with  the  study  of 
the  holy  books  of  the  world  anything  which 
would  lead  a  sane  and  honest  man  to  propose 
for  a  single  instant  a  substitution  of  some 
other  bible  for  our  Bible.  I  think  that  Hin- 
dus, Chinamen  and  Persians,  even  those  who 
are  yet  idolators  among  them,  would  admit 
that  the  Bible  in  its  moral  teachings,  in  its 
social  and  political  influence  is  immeasurably 


Importance  of  the  Question  23 

superior  to  the  customs  which  they  have  con- 
sidered divine.  Who  would,  for  example, 
even  suggest  that  the  position  of  women  and 
children  in  Christian  lands  should  be  altered 
to  conform  to  the  teachings  of  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Eastern  world?  What  teacher 
would  propose  that  a  wife  should  worship  her 
husband,  should  wash  his  feet  and  drink  the 
water  in  which  she  had  washed  them  ?  What 
teacher  would  propose  the  adoption  of  the 
Chinese  method  of  disposing  of  wives  and 
children?  What  teacher,  even  an  Oriental, 
if  he  had  fairly  good  sense,  would  propose 
foot-binding  as  a  universal  custom  for  the 
women  of  the  world  ? 

If  now  our  own  Bible  is  infinitely  superior 
to  these  other  bibles,  how  unfortunate  it  would 
be  if  it  should  prove  in  the  end  that  our  Bible 
has  gained  its  position  through  misrepresen- 
tation and  falsehood,  that  it  is  in  reality  not 
God's  book  but  man's.  Undoubtedly  it  would 
have  a  certain  place  in  human  life  because  of 
its  proved  excellence,  but  as  soon  as  it  had 
been  decided  that  its  claims  to  divine  origin 
are  false,  that  it  cannot  be  relied  upon  to 
tell  the  truth  about  itself  or  about  historic  and 
scientific  facts,  no  man  would  consider  himself 
bound  by  its  teachings.     Men  who  wished  to 


24  Visions  and  Voices 

hallow  the  Lord's  Day  would  hallow  it.  Those 
who  did  not  wish  to  hallow  it  would  treat  it  as 
a  common  thing  and  would  not  be  condemned 
by  their  consciences  for  so  doing.  Men  who 
wished  to  live  clean  lives  would  lead  them. 
Men  who  did  not  wish  to  live  clean  lives 
would  become  vile  and  corrupt  without  the 
sense  of  shame  and  guilt  which  now  is  part 
of  the  penalty  visited  upon  their  transgres- 
sions. Civil  laws  which  have  been  established 
because  of  Christian  teaching  would  more  or 
less  rapidly  lose  their  preeminence  and  we 
should  find  that  the  social,  industrial  and 
political  life  of  our  own  country  would  ap- 
proximate that  of  China,  India,  Turkey  or 
Africa. 

I  remember  that  when  I  first  read  the  chap- 
ter on  the  penalties  inflicted  in  China  on  act- 
ual or  alleged  criminals  it  made  me  sick  for 
days.  I  could  not  think  of  the  sufferings  in- 
flicted on  poor  human  bodies  without  the 
keenest  distress,  but  if  we  have  no  Bible  we 
are  to  look  on  chapters  in  human  history  like 
that  as  really  divine  as  are  the  manners  and 
customs  of  Christian  lands. 

Who  Wrote  the  Bible? 
Who  wrote  the  Bible?     There  is  no  ques- 


Importance  of  the  Question  25 

tion  at  the  present  time  before  the  thoughtful 
people  of  the  world  more  important  than  this, 
and  the  answer  will  determine  for  good  or  ill 
the  lives  of  millions  of  men  and  women  like 
those  who  read  these  words.  Archimedes 
said  if  you  would  give  him  a  fulcrum  on 
which  to  rest  his  lever  he  would  move  the 
world.  He  never  found  the  place  to  rest  his 
lever  and  the  world  has  gone  on  in  its  old- 
fashioned  way  from  his  day  to  the  present 
time.  The  Bible  is  a  fulcrum  on  which  the 
religious  teachers  of  the  world  have  rested 
their  levers  for  the  purpose  of  lifting  the 
human  race  to  a  clearer  atmosphere.  Wherever 
the  Bible  has  gone  results  have  followed 
which  are  most  desirable  even  in  the  opinions 
of  godless  men.  Infidels  with  their  smooth 
tongues  and  their  hard  faces  have  never  dared 
to  assail  the  domestic  life  which  has  been 
produced  by  Bible  lovers  in  Bible  lands.  On 
the  contrary  they  laud  this  and  speak  as  if  it 
might  be  produced  without  the  Book  which 
alone  has  caused  it.  But  when  they  are  asked 
to  furnish  the  evidence,  to  show  the  homes  in 
the  countries  where  gentleness,  purity, 
honesty  and  helpfulness  prevail  apart  from 
the  influence  of  the  Word  of  God,  a  great 
silence  comes  over  them.     They  say  that  the 


26  Visions  and  Voices 

Bible  is  not  the  cause  of  the  results  which 
every  thoughtful  man  attributes  to  it,  which 
no  thoughtful  man  can  attribute  to  any  other 
force  in  human  society,  but  they  do  not  tell 
what  will  do  this  work. 

I  close  this  chapter  asking  all  who  read  it 
to  seek  to  imagine  what  would  be  the  condi- 
tion of  the  world  today  if  the  Bible  had  never 
been  known.  I  urge  them  to  compare  the 
conditions  of  the  lands  where  the  Bible  is 
known  with  the  condition  of  the  lands  where 
it  is  not  known.  I  urge  them  to  ask  the  ques- 
tion what  it  was  which  began  the  change  from 
savagery  to  civilization.  There  are  a  thou- 
sand things  in  Christendom  which  we  must 
look  upon  with  shame  and  sorrow.  The 
present  world  war  is  the  latest  great  example, 
but  all  those  who  are  fairly  well  informed 
know  that  the  Bible  is  not  chargeable  with  the 
crimes  which  its  enemies  or  its  half-friends 
commit.  No  man  who  knows  what  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  are  will  declare  that 
this  war  or  any  other  war  is  a  result  of  liv- 
ing according  to  those  teachings.  In  the  Bible 
we  are  commanded  to  think  upon  the  things 
which  are  lovely  and  of  good  report.  We  are 
charged  to  avoid  all  those  spiritual  states  and 
acts  which  lead  to   the  wholesale  murders 


Importance  of  the  Question  27 

which  are  now  going  forward  throughout  the 
world.  There  are  a  few  of  us,  perhaps,  who 
have  seen  in  individuals,  in  homes,  in  commu- 
nities, the  marvelous  changes  wrought  by  the 
Word  of  God.  We  have  therefore  a  right 
to  insist  upon  our  question.  Who  wrote  the 
Bible?  If  God  has  not  written  it,  why  has  it 
produced  the  marvels  it  has  wrought?  If 
God  did  not  write  it,  what  shall  we  do  for 
guidance  in  conduct  for  ourselves  and  those 
depending  upon  us?  More  important  than 
questions  of  industrial  life  or  government  pol- 
icy is  this  great  question  as  to  the  authorship 
of  this  wonderful  Book. 


CHAPTER  11. 

THE  BIBLE  STATEMENT  AS  TO  THE 

FACTS  OR  WHAT  THE  BIBLE 

SAYS  FOR  ITSELF. 

Dr.  Bowne  in  his  "Psychological  Founda- 
tions" contrasts  the  method  of  rigor  and 
vigor  with  the  rational  method.  He  says 
that  the  method  of  rigor  and  vigor  requires 
us  to  use  no  terms  which  are  not  defined  and 
no  propositions  which  are  not  proved;  that 
the  rational  method  requires  us  to  accept 
terms  in  their  ordinary  meaning  unless  there 
is  a  reason  for  rejecting  them,  to  believe 
statements  to  be  true  unless  there  is  some 
reason  for  doubt.  He  says  truly  that  under 
the  method  of  rigor  and  vigor  it  is  impossible 
to  get  anywhere;  that  in  every  science,  as  in 
geometry,  there  must  be  universally  admitted 
truths  lying  at  the  foundations  and  from  these 
universally  admitted  truths  we  may  pass  to 
truths  which  are  not  obvious  in  themselves. 

To  doubt  everything  that  can  be  doubted 
and  to  believe  only  that  which  is  proved 
is  a  method  for  the  insane  rather  than  for 


The  Bible   Statement  29 

rational  beings.  An  objector  might  ask,  "Why 
do  you  wish  to  know  what  the  Bible  says  for 
itself?  Of  course  the  Bible  will  speak  well 
of  itself.  This  is  naturally  true.  But  it  is 
poor  evidence.  We  need  to  establish  the  di- 
vine character  of  the  Bible  from  outside  tes- 
timony rather  than  from  its  own  statements." 
It  may  be  admitted  that  one's  own  testimony 
must  be  accepted  with  a  measure  of  doubt. 
Corroboration  in  such  a  case  will  always  be 
in  order.  At  the  same  time  the  testimony 
which  a  man  or  a  book  or  an  institution  bears 
concerning  itself  is  always  important,  and  in 
the  case  of  the  Bible  certainly  ought  to  be 
understood  and,  if  corroborated  by  sufficient 
proofs,  may  be  accepted.  If  there  should 
prove  to  be  real  evidence  going  to  show  that 
the  Bible's  claims  for  itself  as  to  origin 
and  character  are  not  true,  these  evidences 
must  be  weighed.  Everything  must  be  fair- 
ly considered.  The  rule  here  is  the  rule  which 
we  should  follow  everywhere. 

Assume    Nothing,    Deny    Nothing,    Test 
Everything. 

Every  once  in  a  while  I  run  across  a  state- 
ment something  like  this:  'The  Bible  is 
literature  and  must  be  regarded  like  all  other 


30  Visions  and  Voices 

literature.  We  must  examine  and  test  it  just 
as  we  do  other  books."  This  statement  has 
an  appearance  of  truth  and  yet  contains  a 
fatal  error.  Supposing  accusations  should  be 
made  against  the  character  of  the  mother  of 
the  person  who  is  reading  these  words.  He 
is  told  that  his  mother  is  a  human  being  like 
all  other  people  and  that  the  charges  against 
her  ought  to  be  regarded  by  him  just  as 
similar  charges  against  any  other  woman 
would  be.  My  reader  would  probably  say, 
"Well,  but  I  know  my  mother,  I  have  known 
her  ever  since  I  was  a  little  child.  I  know 
what  sort  of  a  woman  she  is  and  I  will  not 
examine  the  charges  affecting  her  character 
as  I  would  those  of  a  person  I  did  not  know 
at  all  or  one  whom  I  knew  to  be  of  evil  char- 
acter. I  mean  to  accept  proofs  and  testi- 
mony, but  I  shall  require  more  and  different 
evidences  to  establish  charges  against  my 
mother  than  I  would  require  to  establish 
charges  against  a  person  who  was  a  stranger 
or  one  whose  character  I  knew  to  be  bad." 
Every  reasonable  person  would  say  that  my 
reader  was  speaking  quite  within  his  rights, 
that  he  would  not  only  be  unfilial  but  that  he 
would  be  a  fool  to  examine  charges  against 
one  whom  he  had  known  for,  let  us  say,  forty 


The  Bible  Statement  31 

years,  as  a  worthy  and  excellent  person,  in 
exactly  the  same  temper  and  state  of  mind 
with  which  he  would  come  to  the  study  of 
similar  charges  against  a  person  of  different 
character. 

I  think  the  application  of  this  remark  is 
obvious.  The  Bible  has  been  in  the  world  in 
part  for  about  four  thousand  years.  It  has 
had  a  completed  existence  for  near  two 
thousand  years.  It  has  been  scrutinized  as 
no  other  book  ever  has  been.  Friends  and 
foes  alike  have  devoted  years  of  patient,  per- 
severing study  to  its  books  and  pages.  The 
one  class  of  men  have  endeavored  to  ascertain 
whether  it  was  evil  or  not;  the  other  have 
endeavored  to  prove  it  evil.  It  has  been  trans- 
lated as  no  other  book  in  the  history  of  the 
world  ever  was  translated.  It  is  printed  today 
in  nearly  or  quite  five  hundred  different  lan- 
guages, and  whenever  a  savage  people  is  dis- 
covered in  some  out-of-the-way  corner  of  the 
world,  one  of  the  first  things  that  the  mission- 
ary does  is  to  create  a  language  for  the  people 
and  then  put  the  Bible  into  their  native  tongue. 
We  have  here,  then,  a  Book  which  has  ex- 
isted in  completed  form  for  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years  and  which  has  been  already  put 
into  over  five  hundred   different   languages. 


32  Visions  and  Voices 

Here  are  two  searching  tests,  but  there  is  a 
third. 

This  Book  in  place  of  being  a  book  for 
curious  scholars  has  everywhere  been  recog- 
nized  as    a   book    for   the   common   people. 
There  are,  it  is  true,  costly  editions  printed, 
editions   costing   in   single   copies   scores   or 
hundreds  of  dollars.     On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  printed  in  editions  of  the  cheapest  sort  so 
that  the  whole  Bible  has  been  sold  for  twenty- 
five  cents  or  about  that.     The  volumes  printed 
annually  have  increased  in  number  from  the 
beginning  until   now.     Last  year,    191 5,   the 
publication   reached   high-water   mark,   over 
twenty-nine  millions  of  copies  of  the  whole 
or  portions  of  the  Word  of  God  having  been 
put   out  during  those  twelve  months — over 
eight    million   by    the    British    and    Foreign 
Bible  Society,  over  six  million  by  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Society,  over  three  million  by  the 
Scottish  Bible  Society,  about  one  million  by 
the  Oxford  Press,  and  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  by  other 
publishers.     Here  is  a  most  remarkable  fact. 
Some    infidel   comes   along   writing   a   little 
book  filled  with  blasphemies  and  vagaries  and 
says,  *'My  book  is  literature  and  the  Bible  is 
literature.    You  are  to  examine  what  I  say 


The  Bible   Statement  33 

against  the  Bible  candidly  and  with  the  same 
willingness  to  accept  it  that  you  give  to  what 
the  Bible  says  concerning  itself."  This  is 
absurd  beyond  the  limits  of  impudence.  If 
my  friend  who  says  we  must  treat  the  Bible 
as  literature  would  say  we  must  treat  the  Bible 
as  we  treat  all  other  literature  of  the  same 
class,  that  would  do.  That  is  a  rational  po- 
sition to  occupy.  But  to  treat  literature 
which  has  been  tested  through  thousands  of 
years  by  millions  of  people  as  we  treat  the 
vagaries  or  even  the  excellent  work  of  writers 
who  have  as  yet  failed  to  produce  a  deep 
and  permanent  impression  upon  the  world, 
is  simple  nonsense.  Take  the  matter  of 
manuscripts  alone.  I  do  not  profess  to  speak 
with  authority,  but  men  who  do,  tell  us  that 
for  Caesar,  Virgil,  Ovid,  Xenophon,  Thucyd- 
ides,  Aristophanes  or  other  classic  writers  a 
score  or  two  of  copies  of  manuscripts  is  about 
all  that  we  can  generally  find.  It  is  from  this 
score  or  two  of  manuscripts  that  questions  of 
text  are  determined  and  place  in  the  literary 
world  is  made  out.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
New  Testament  furnishes  us  something  like 
two  thousand  manuscripts,  the  Old  Testament 
hundreds  more,  and  this  although  it  is  known 
that  for  many  years  both  civil  and  ecclesiasti- 


34  Visions  and  Voices 

cal  authority  was  exerted  to  the  utmost  to  de- 
stroy all  copies  of  this  Book.  No  one  ever 
gathered  copies  of  the  classic  writers,  piled 
them  in  courtyards  and  burned  them,  but  this 
has  been  commonplace  in  the  history  of  the 
Word  of  God,  and  yet  we  are  asked  to  treat 
the  Bible  as  literature,  to  assume  nothing  for 
it  that  we  cannot  assume  for  the  ignoble  work 
of  men  whose  writings  never  have  had  its 
vast  circulation  and  which  are  at  the  present 
time  valued  only  by  a  few  students. 

■  To  THE  Place  of  Beginning. 

I  therefore  return  to  the  question  with 
which  I  started.  What  does  the  Bible  say  for 
itself?  Does  it  make  any  declarations  as  to 
its  origin?  If  so,  what  are  they?  We  cer- 
tainly have  a  right  to  hear  them.  Whether 
they  shall  be  accepted  or  not  will  depend.  If 
they  are  clearly  irrational  and  contradictory, 
we  must  reject  them.  If  they  have  an  ap- 
pearance of  truth  and  if  there  is  no  contradict- 
ing evidence,  then  we  must  accept  them.  We 
must  deal  honestly  with  the  Book.  This  is 
required  by  common  sense  and  common  fair- 
ness. 

One  of  the  first  facts  which  we  meet  when 
we  begin  this  discussion  is  the  continual  re- 


The  Bible  Statement  35 

currence  of  the  expressions  "The  Lord  said," 
"The  Lord  spake,"  "The  Lord  said,"  "The 
Lord  spake."  I  have  never  counted  the 
number  of  times  that  these  expressions  occur 
in  the  Word  of  God,  but  that  they  are  so  com- 
mon they  must  be  numbered  by  hundreds  of 
times  all  Bible  readers  know.  When  the 
Bible  says,  "And  the  Lord  said,"  and  "The 
Lord  spake,"  what  is  the  obvious  inference? 
It  is  that  God  communicated  the  words  which 
follow  to  some  writer  who  recorded  them  and 
that  they  have  been  preserved  from  that  day 
until  this  present  time.  There  is  perhaps  no 
one  alleged  author  of  the  Bible  whose  work 
has  been  so  sharply  criticized  as  that  of  Moses, 
yet  more  frequently  than  in  the  case  of  any 
other  individual  do  we  have  this  expression  as- 
sociated with  his  name,  "And  the  Lord  said 
unto  Moses,"  and  "the  Lord  spake  unto 
Moses,"  and  finally  we  have  it  recorded  that 
the  Lord  told  Moses  to  write  in  a  book  things 
which  He  had  spoken  to  him.  And  the  record 
goes  on  to  say  that  Moses  did  what  God  told 
him  to  do.  "And  Moses  wrote  this  law,  and 
delivered  it  unto  the  priests  the  sons  of  Levi, 
which  bare  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the 
Lord,  and  unto  all  the  elders  of  Israel.  And 
Moses  commanded  them,  saying.  At  the  end 


36  Visions  and  Voices 

of  every  seven  years,  in  the  solemnity  of  the 
year  of  release,  in  the  feast  of  tabernacles, 
when  all  Israel  is  come  to  appear  before  the 
Lord  thy  God  in  the  place  which  he  shall 
choose,  thou  shalt  read  this  law  before  all 
Israel  in  their  hearing.  Gather  the  people 
together,  men,  and  women,  and  children,  and 
thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates,  that 
they  may  hear,  and  that  they  may  learn,  and 
fear  the  Lord  your  God,  and  observe  to  do 
all  the  words  of  this  law"  (Deut.  31,  verses 
9  to  12).  And  again  in  the  same  chapter, 
verse  22,  we  find  these  words :  "Moses  there- 
fore wrote  this  song  the  same  day  and  taught 
it  to  the  children  of  Israel."  And  in  the  24th 
to  26th  verses,  "And  it  came  to  pass,  when 
Moses  had  made  an  end  of  the  writing  the 
words  of  this  law  in  a  book,  until  they  were 
finished,  that  Moses  commanded  the  Levites, 
which  bare  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the 
Lord,  saying.  Take  this  book  of  the  law,  and 
put  it  in  the  side  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
of  the  Lord  your  God,  that  it  may  be  there 
for  a  witness  against  thee."  The  whole 
tenor  of  the  book  is  in  this  same  line  though 
the  thought  is  not  always  so  positively  ex- 
pressed. It  seems  as  if  God  laid  the  emphasis 
on  the  work  which  was  to  be  denied  or  else 


The  Bible  Statement  37 

that  infidel  writers  have  chosen  to  deny  that 
which  God  had  particularly  emphasized.  But 
though  there  is  no  other  author  whose  con- 
nection with  the  Book  is  so  positively  and  so 
frequently  examined,  there  is  throughout  the 
whole  series  of  books  of  the  Bible  a  clear 
claim  of  divine  authority  for  the  things  which 
are  written. 

Job,  another  of  the  books  which  is  frequent- 
ly questioned  as  to  authenticity,  is  referred 
to  in  the  New  Testament  as  an  evidence  of 
the  promise-keeping  of  God.  The  saints  are 
taught  to  think  of  Job  and  to  see  how  merci- 
ful God  is  to  His  believing  ones.  "Behold, 
we  count  them  happy  which  endure.  Ye  have 
heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and  have  seen 
the  end  of  the  Lord;  that  the  Lord  is  very 
pitiful  and  of  tender  mercy"  ( Jas.  5:12).  We 
have  also  in  the  New  Testament  the  explicit 
declaration  that  all  the  Scriptures  are  given 
by  inspiration  of  God  and  are  profitable  for 
doctrine,  reproof,  correction,  instruction  in 
righteousness  (II  Timothy  3:16).  And  Peter 
says  substantially  the  same  thing  in  his  second 
letter,  first  chapter,  verses  19-21 :  "We  have 
also  a  more  sure  word  of  prophecy;  where- 
unto  ye  do  well  that  ye  take  heed,  as  unto  a 
light  that  shineth  in  a  dark  place,  until  the 


38  Visions  and  Voices 

day  dawn,  and  the  day  star  arise  in  your 
hearts;  knowing  this  first,  that  no  prophecy 
of  the  scripture  is  of  any  private  interpreta- 
tion. For  the  prophecy  came  not  in  old  time 
by  the  will  of  man:  but  holy  men  of  God 
spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."  And  finally,  we  have  in  the  last 
chapter  of  the  Book  these  wonderful  words: 
"For  I  testify  unto  every  man  that  heareth 
the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  this  book.  If 
any  man  shall  add  unto  these  things,  God  shall 
add  unto  him  the  plagues  that  are  written  in 
this  book:  And  if  any  man  shall  take  away 
from  the  words  of  the  book  of  this  prophecy, 
God  shall  take  away  his  part  out  of  the  book  of 
life,  and  out  of  the  holy  city,  and  from  the 
things  which  are  written  in  this  book."  It  is 
admitted  that  these  imprecations  have  special 
reference  to  the  book  of  Revelation,  but  it 
seems  to  me  as  if  they  have  also  backward 
reference  that  should  make  all  people  who 
deal  lightly  and  carelessly  with  the  prophets 
or  history  in  the  different  books  of  the  Bible 
very  much  afraid. 

So  Much  for  the  Positive. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  intimation 
in   the   Book    from   beginning   to    end    that 


The  Bible  Statement  39 

any  considerable  portion  of  it  is  written  with- 
out divine  authority.  The  only  exceptions,  I 
believe,  are  those  where  Paul  once  or  twice 
says  that  he  speaks  certain  things  not  by  com- 
mandment but  of  himself ;  and  in  another  case 
w^here  he  says  that  he  believes  himself  to 
have  the  Spirit  of  God.  There  is  here  no 
denial  of  the  divine  supervision  and  control, 
but  it  is  admitted  that  expressions  of  this 
kind  cast  a  certain  measure  of  doubt  on  the 
particular  passages  with  which  they  are  con- 
nected. If,  however,  these  should  be  re- 
jected, the  Book  would  remain  in  every  essen- 
tial particular  what  it  is  today.  We  have 
therefore  this  singular  state  of  fact  in  refer- 
ence to  the  Bible's  claim  for  itself.  Wherever 
it  speaks  definitely  as  to  authorship  and  re- 
sponsibility, it  claims  for  itself  divine  author- 
ity. Nowhere  except  in  the  two  or  three 
small  instances  above  referred  to  is  there  any 
intimation  that  God  is  not  the  responsible 
Author  of  the  whole  work.  We  therefore 
conclude  that  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  Bible 
to  claim  for  itself  divine  authorship.  If  this 
is  not  true,  if  the  Bible  did  come  by  the  will 
of  men  rather  than  by  inspiration  of  God, 
if  it  was  not  written  by  holy  men  as  God 
directed  them,  then  the  Book  is  in  many  in- 


40  Visions  and  Voices 

stances  evidently  lying  and  throughout  seems 
to  be  endeavoring  to  secure  faith  for  a  fraud. 
It  is  a  fair  question  whether  or  not  a  book 
having  the  general  character  of  the  Bible 
could  possibly  be  a  book  of  this  description. 
Liars  and  cheats  have  usually  a  reason  for 
cheating  and  lying.  If  the  Bible  was  written 
by  men  without  divine  impulse  and  if  these 
men  who  wrote  the  Bible  in  this  manner 
wished  to  get  the  world  to  believe  that  there 
was  a  godly  origin  for  the  Book,  then  cer- 
tainly we  should  expect  the  Book  to  show 
in  its  character  marks  of  this  sort  of  an  ori- 
gin. We  should  not  expect  it  to  be  high  in 
moral  tone,  lofty  in  diction  and  style,  but 
the  shabby  spirit  which  animated  it  we  should 
expect  to  clothe  itself  in  shabby  dress.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  claimed,  I  believe,  by 
those  who  wish  to  study  the  Bible  simply  as 
literature,  that  never  since  the  thoughts  of 
men  were  recorded  in  permanent  form  has 
there  been  a  book  written  which  in  diction  and 
style  compares  for  a  moment  with  this  Book. 
The  wonderful  poems  of  David  expressing 
so  beautifully  the  universal  longings  of 
the  human  heart,  the  orations  of  the  patriot 
prophets  Isaiah,  Ezekial,  Jeremiah,  the  limpid, 
crystal-clear  biographies,  all  these  seem  to  be 


The   Bible   Statement  41 

absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  theory  that 
the  Bible  is  the  work  of  a  number  of  cheap, 
deceitful,  fraud-loving  men.  If  we  meet  a 
man  on  the  street  and  he  tells  us  that  his 
name  is  Smith,  Jones  or  Brown,  we  naturally 
believe  that  what  he  says  is  true.  If  we  see 
that  he  has  a  hangdog  look,  if  we  find  that 
he  is  accustomed  to  change  his  dwelling  often 
without  settling  his  rent,  if  we  learn  that  he 
has  been  arrested  a  few  times  and  on  each 
occasion  has  given  a  different  name,  we  natu- 
rally question  about  Smith,  Jones  or  Brown 
as  the  case  may  be.  But  if  we  find  that  the 
man  looks  us  squarely  in  the  face  and  his 
eyes  are  clear  and  honest,  his  tones  unfalter- 
ing; if  we  find  that  his  reputation  is  that  of 
an  honest,  industrious,  truthful  man,  then  we 
accept  his  statement  that  his  name  is  Smith, 
Jones  or  Brown.  If  someone  chooses  to  throw 
doubt  upon  it  on  the  ground  that  many  men 
tell  lies,  that  there  are  a  great  many  persons 
traveling  under  aliases,  we  say.  Nevertheless, 
this  man  looks  like  an  honest  man,  acts  like 
an  honest  man,  speaks  like  an  honest  man. 
Until  we  have  some  specific  charge  of  bad 
faith  to  bring  aginst  him  we  accept  his  state- 
ment at  face  value  and  we  believe  that  he  is 
Smith,  Jones  or  Brown. 


42  Visions  and  Voices 

The  Bible  is  entitled  to  similar  treatment. 
In  many  instances  it  explicitly  declares  itself 
to  record  words  which  God  Himself  said. 
Through  the  entire  sixty-six  books  this  claim 
to  divine  authority  is  an  undertone  felt  if  not 
distinctly  uttered.  In  a  number  of  instances 
the  claim  to  divine  authority  is  set  up  in  a. 
general  way.  "All  scripture  is  given  by  in- 
spiration of  God."  The  word  "scripture" 
used  here  had  a  clearly  defined  meaning.  No 
Jew  had  any  doubt  as  to  what  it  meant.  It 
referred  primarily  to  the  Old  Testament.  It 
referred  in  a  secondary  way  to  those  portions 
of  the  New  Testament  which  were  already 
written,  and  this  claim  must  be  accepted  until 
there  is  some  reason  for  doubt.  The  method 
of  rigor  and  vigor  is  an  absolute  failure.  It 
breaks  down  at  the  very  threshold  of  human 
reasoning.  We  are  not  to  doubt  everything 
we  can  doubt  and  to  believe  only  that  which 
is  proved;  but  if  we  wish  to  act  rationally, 
we  must  believe  what  is  affirmed  to  be  true 
until  we  have  some  reason  for  questioning. 
And  this  reason  must  be  a  definite,  positive 
reason ;  general  remarks  about  the  uncertainty 
of  human  testimony,  etc.,  etc.,  have  no  stand- 
ing in  the  court  of  reason  any  more  than  they 
have  in  a  court  of  law. 


CHAPTER  III. 
HOW  COULD  GOD  WRITE  A  BOOK? 

At  times  men  have  said  to  me  as  if  they 
were  asking  a  question  impossible  of  reply. 
You  do  not  suppose  that  God  dictated  the  Bible 
as  you  dictate  a  letter  to  a  stenographer,  do 
you  ?  And  I  answer.  Why  not  ?  We  stumble 
here  on  the  question  of  thought  communica- 
tion. Everyone  knows  that  we  communicate 
our  thoughts  and  feelings  by  words,  looks  and 
acts.  If  a  man  scowls,  shakes  his  fist  in  my 
face  and  advances  toward  me  in  a  threatening 
manner,  I  do  not  have  to  ask  him  how  he  is 
feeling.  I  know  how  he  is  feeling.  This  is 
one  of  the  common  methods  of  communicating 
feeling.  Thoughts  are  usually  expressed  in 
words  or  by  actions.  If  I  say  to  a  man, 
"Which  way  did  that  man  go  ?"  and  he  points 
down  the  street  or  says,  "He  went  down  the 
street,"  in  either  case  I  know  the  thought 
which  has  passed  through  his  mind.  If  a 
person  writes  a  letter  to  me  and  I  am  able 
to  understand  the  language  which  he  uses,  I 
know  his  thoughts  because  I  read  them  ex- 


44  Visions  and  Voices 

pressed  in  words.  These  are  the  common 
methods  of  expressing  thoughts  among  hu- 
man beings. 

But  supposing  God  wished  to  talk  with  men, 
as  the  Bible  over  and  again  affirms  that  He 
did.  What  then?  Shall  we  imagine  that  it 
will  be  difficult  for  God  to  communicate  His 
thoughts  because  He  has  not  a  body  like  a 
man,  because  He  cannot  speak  into  our  ears 
or  write  a  communication  for  our  eyes?  It 
would  seem  to  be  an  absurd  statement  to  say 
that  God  Who  has  made  man  cannot  commu- 
nicate His  thoughts  to  the  men  whom  He  has 
made.  If  men  are  able  to  communicate  their 
thoughts  to  one  another  and  God  is  not  able 
to  communicate  His  thoughts  to  them,  it  seems 
that  they  are  in  essential  particulars  greater 
than  He.  When,  therefore,  someone  asks  me 
how  God  could  write  a  book,  I  ask  him  how 
men  write  books,  and  I  say  to  him  that  un- 
doubtedly God  is  as  capable  of  writing  a  book 
as  a  man  is ;  that  if  He  chooses  to  write  one, 
undoubtedly  He  will  be  able  to  do  it. 

Let  us,  however,  go  a  step  farther  than 
this  general  affirmation.  We  ourselves  are 
spirits  housed  in  organisms  and  operating 
through  them.  Our  voices  do  not  speak 
words  which  the  voices  determine  but  words 


How  Could  God  Write  a  Book       45 

which  our  minds  determine.  Our  hands  do 
not  write  words  which  the  hands  decide  upon, 
they  write  words  which  our  minds  decide 
upon.  We  do  not  express  in  looks  or  words 
thoughts  which  arise  in  the  skin  or  in  the 
vocal  organs  or  in  the  muscles,  but  we  ex- 
press thoughts  and  feelings  which  arise  in  our 
inner  being.  This  is  the  source  of  all  human 
communication.  From  within,  out  of  the 
heart,  proceed  not  only  the  evil  deeds  of 
men  but  the  good  deeds  of  men. 

Death  to  us  is  commonplace.  *There  is  no 
flock  howe'er  so  well  defended  but  one  dead 
lamb  is  there,"  and  we  know  that  when  the 
body  has  dropped  away,  the  spirit  can  no 
longer  employ  it  for  the  expression  of  its  am- 
bitions, hopes  and  fears.  Do  we,  therefore, 
imagine  the  spirit  to  be  dead  and  powerless  ? 
There  is  a  little  handful  of  Christian  people 
who  thus  believe,  but  the  vast  majority  of 
men  and  women  of  Christian  faith  have  be- 
lieved and  believe  now  that  when  the  body 
has  dropped  away  the  spirit  can  communicate 
its  thoughts  and  perform  its  acts  much  more 
fully  and  freely  than  now.  It  would  be  a 
singular  faith  that  should  lead  us  to  believe 
that  the  millions  of  persons  who  have  gone 
into  eternity  are  shut  up  each  to  his  own  in- 


46  Visions  and  Voices 

dividual  life.  I  do  not  think  anyone  believes 
this  to  be  possible.  If  not,  then  the  spirit 
must  be  able  to  communicate  with  spirit  with- 
out physical  resources,  and  if  finite  spirits  can 
communicate  with  finite  spirits,  surely  the  In- 
finite Spirit  can  communicate  with  finite 
spirits. 

God  in  Human  Form. 

No  person  who  believes  in  God  at  all  doubts 
that  He  can  assume  human  form  if  He  de- 
sires to  do  so.  If  God  can  create  human 
forms  for  the  occupation  of  finite  spirits,  cer- 
tainly He  could  create  a  human  form  for  the 
housing  of  His  own  Infinite  Spirit  if  He 
wished  to  do  so.  This  is  the  explanation  pf 
the  being  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  mani- 
fested in  the  flesh. 

Reflection  on  this  subject  will  show  that  if 
God  wishes  to  dictate  a  message  to  any  of  His 
people  it  is  a  simple  thing  for  Him  to  do  so. 
He  could  if  He  pleased  speak  into  the  ears 
of  men  or  He  could  control  the  hands  of  men 
so  that  they  should  write  the  things  that  He 
wished  them  to  write  and  nothing  else.  In 
this  manner  He  seems  to  have  given  to  David 
the  directions  for  building  the  temple  (I 
Chronicles  28:19).    There  is  no  limit  to  the 


How  Could  God  Write  a  Book        47 

methods  in  which  God  might  have  dictated 
the  Bible  to  His  servants  if  He  desired  to 
do  so. 

If  we  choose  to  believe  those  who  deny 
divine  authority  to  the  Word  of  God  and  af- 
firm human  authorship,  we  should  be  landed 
in  a  thousand  difficulties.  In  the  first  place, 
how  could  sinful  men  write  a  book  which  is 
so  lofty  in  moral  tone  as  the  Bible,  command- 
ing everything  that  is  right,  forbidding  every- 
thing wrong  and  denouncing  the  most  fear- 
ful judgments  upon  people  who  will  not  do 
things  which  are  right?  How  could  men 
have  ever  deliberately  set  out  to  write  a  law 
like  this  ?  Allow  that  the  Book  is  man's  work, 
and  how  are  we  to  account  for  the  fact  that  it 
frankly  sets  forth  the  follies  and  failures  of 
God's  people  ?  We  should  never  have  known 
that  Noah  got  drunk  except  that  the  Bible 
had  told  us  so.  We  may  be  quite  sure  that 
courtiers  would  never  have  recorded  the  sins 
of  David.  There  is  no  record  anywhere  so 
far  as  known  of  his  failure  in  moral  char- 
acter except  in  the  Word  of  God.  The  disciples 
of  our  Lord  Himself  were,  according  to  their 
own  account,  full  of  human  frailty.  They  dis- 
puted for  preeminence  even  in  the  shadow  of 
His  cross;  and  Peter,  one  of  the  chief  est  of 


48  Visions  and  Voices 

them,  one  who  is  by  the  Roman  church  con- 
sidered its  founder,  received  that  frightful 
rebuke,  *'Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan/*  It  is 
not  customary  for  men  to  recite  their  own 
failures,  to  put  them  into  permanent  form 
where  after  ages  will  think  of  them.  If  men 
wrote  the  Book,  how  are  we  to  account  for 
the  fact  that  men  in  such  social  and  intel- 
lectual surroundings  should  have  written  a 
Book  which  is  a  model  of  composition  for 
all  after  ages?  University  professors  by  the 
score  are  now  busying  themselves  with  the 
Bible  as  literature,  some  of  them  are  commit- 
ting large  portions  of  it  to  memory  and  earn- 
ing fees  for  reciting  it.  Others  of  them  are 
writing  literary  criticisms  on  it  as  a  means  of 
getting  money.  It  is  incredible  that  men  of 
the  Jewish  race,  two  or  three  thousand  years 
ago,  should  have  created  a  literature  which  is 
a  model  for  all  the  ages  since. 

If  this  was  man's  Book,  how  are  we  to 
account  for  its  continued  life?  Books  which 
men  write  generally  die.  They  become  out 
of  date,  worn  out.  New  books  supplant  them. 
Everyone  knows  how  this  is  in  regard  to  hymn 
books  for  our  churches  and  Sabbath  schools. 
There  is  a  stream  of  new  writings  all  the 
while.     Everyone  knows  how  it  is  in  science. 


How  Could  God  Write  a  Book       49 

A  scientific  book  ten  years  old  is  generally 
out  of  date.  Yet  here  is  a  Book  which  has 
lived  on  for  two  thousand  years  and  in  place 
of  seeming  about  to  perish  it  has  a  wider  cir- 
culation today  than  ever  before. 

No  matter  in  what  direction  you  turn,  if 
you  accept  the  theory  of  human  authorship 
you  are  landed  in  the  midst  of  difficulties. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  God  is  the  author  of 
the  Book,  its  moral  tone,  its  literary  character 
and  its  ever- increasing  life  are  all  explained. 
If  God  should  take  it  upon  Himself  to  write 
a  book  for  the  guidance  of  human  beings, 
we  should  expect  it  to  be  perfect  in  moral 
standards;  we  should  expect  it  to  be  perfect 
in  literary  style ;  we  should  know  that  it  would 
be  vital ;  that  it  would  have  in  it  life,  and  this 
is  what  we  have  in  the  Word  of  God. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

VISIONS  AND  VOICES. 

"We  have  also  a  more  sure  word  of 
prophecy,  whereunto  ye  do  well  that  ye  take 
heed,  as  unto  a  light  that  shineth  in  a  dark 
place,  until  the  day  dawn,  and  the  day  star 
arise  in  your  hearts."  What  did  the  Holy 
Spirit  intend  when  He  moved  Peter  to  say,  "A 
more  sure  word  of  prophecy"  ?  In  the  verses 
which  immediately  precede  this  19th  verse  of 
2nd  Peter,  Chapter  I,  Peter  had  said  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  had  shown  him  that  he  must  short- 
ly die.  He  says  that  he  was  an  eye-witness 
of  His  Majesty  and  that  he  heard  a  voice  cer- 
tifying to  His  character  from  the  heavens 
above  saying,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son  in 
whom  I  am  well  pleased";  and  then  he  pro- 
ceeds to  say,  "We  have  also  a  more  sure  word 
of  prophecy  to  which  we  do  well  to  take 
heed."  More  sure  than  what?  Perhaps 
more  sure  than  this  personal  communication 
with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Possibly  more 
sure  than  the  vision  of  His  transcendent 
glory,  possibly  more  sure  than  the  voice  which 


Visions  and  Voices  51 

came  from  heaven  saying,  This  is  my  beloved 
Son;  we  have  also  a  more  sure  word  of 
prophecy.  Why  was  the  word  of  prophecy 
more  sure  than  the  vision  and   the  voice? 

I  remember  a  lady  who  once  told  me  she 
was  certain  she  was  a  Christian,  and  when  I 
asked  her  the  reason  she  said  because  when 
she  was  a  young  child  she  had  a  vision  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  He  came  into  her  room,  stood  at 
the  foot  of  her  bed  and  told  her  that  she  was 
really  a  Christian  and  that  she  was  going  to 
heaven.  "Since  that  time,"  she  said,  "I  have 
had  no  question  in  my  mind  about  it.  I  am 
sure  that  I  am  saved."  Of  course  I  did  not 
attempt  to  destroy  her  faith.  It  is  better  to 
have  an  ill-founded  faith  in  a  truth  or  in  a 
good  thing  than  to  have  no  faith  at  all.  But 
how  small  an  evidence  she  had !  How  pitiful 
that  she  did  not  have  the  evidence  of  a  more 
sure  word  of  prophecy ! 

Charles  Spurgeon  said  one  day  in  his  pulpit, 
"If  an  angel  from  heaven  were  to  meet  me  as 
I  go  into  the  vestry  and  say  to  me,  'Charles 
Spurgeon,  your  sins  are  all  forgiven,  you  are 
a  child  of  God,'  I  would  say  to  him,  *It  is  true 
I  am,  but  I  do  not  thank  you  for  telling  me 
so.  I  know  it  on  far  better  evidence  than 
yours/  "     He  was  speaking  on  the  certainty 


52  Visions  and  Voices 

of  the  Word  of  God  and  the  fact  that  Chris- 
tians who  believe  the  Word  of  God  know 
themselves  to  be  saved,  not  because  of  some 
experiences  which  they  have  had,  but  because 
of  the  word  which  God  Himself  has  spoken. 
"He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting 
life."  This  is  the  word  of  God.  If  it  is  true 
and  one  believes  it,  then  he  has  everlasting 
life  and  he  does  not  need  an  angel  to  come 
and  assure  him  of  the  fact.  He  has  the  word 
of  God. 

Years  ago  there  was  an  ignorant  lad  work- 
ing in  a  blacksmith  shop  not  far  away  from 
my  home  who  was  being  badgered  by  an  older 
Christian  who  ought  to  have  known  better 
than  to  do  as  he  did.  The  older  Christian 
said  to  him,  "Now,  you  are  a  Christian ;  now, 
you  are  saved,  I  suppose  ?"  And  the  lad  said, 
"Yes,  1  am."  The  older  one  said  to  him, 
"How  do  you  know  that  you  are  a  Christian  ? 
How  do  you  know  that  you  are  saved  ?"  The 
babe  in  Christ  did  not  know  what  to  say,  but, 
availing  himself  of  the  Yankee  privilege  of 
answering  one  question  by  asking  another,  he 
said,  "Are  you  saved?"  The  older  man  said, 
"Yes,  I  am  saved,  thank  God."  The  lad  went 
on,  "How  do  you  know  it?"  And  the  older 
man  said,  "I  have  the  word  of  God  for  it." 


Visions  and  Voices  53 

This  gave  the  younger  man  his  cue  and  he 
said,  "So  have  I." 

Feelings  change.  They  change  with  the 
wind,  with  the  weather,  with  physical  condi- 
tion, with  spiritual  state;  but  the  Word  of 
God  does  not  change.  It  abides  ever  the 
same.  If  one  of  my  readers  should  tonight 
have  a  vision  of  Jesus  Christ,  should  hear 
a  voice  from  heaven  assuring  him  of  his  ac- 
ceptance, I  do  not  doubt  he  would  be  awed 
and  moved.  If  he  is  simply  reading  the 
promises  of  God,  "Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved  and  thy 
house,"  he  may  have  no  such  exultant  feeling. 
This  statement  was  made  to  the  jailor  and  to 
all  persons  in  the  jailor's  situation,  and  it  does 
not  impress  him  as  the  vision  or  the  voice 
would,  but  the  vision  and  the  voice  pass  while 
the  Word  of  God  abides  forever.  This  is  the 
comfort  that  comes  to  those  who  know  the 
Word  of  God  to  be  what  it  professes  to  be. 

Marvels  Lose  Their  Power. 

Another  fact  respecting  visions  and  voices 
is  that  by  repetition  they  lose  their  impressive- 
ness.  If  a  man  were  to  be  raised  from  the 
dead  by  the  word  of  a  disciple  in  one  of  our 
churches,  when  the  word  passed  out  among 


54  Visions  and  Voices 

the  people  crowds  would  throng  to  see  the 
place  where  the  marvel  had  occurred  and  all 
of  them  would  hope  that  they  might  see  some- 
thing of  the  same  sort;  but  most  of  them 
would  not  see  something  of  the  same  sort, 
and  if  they  did  and  it  were  repeated  twenty  or 
thirty  times,  it  would  largely  lose  its  power. 
Those  who  wished  to  go  to  hear  and  to  see, 
would  go.  But  the  busy  multitudes  would  say, 
"We  are  occupied  with  life,  trying  to  provide 
for  daily  needs.  We  will  let  dead  men  take  care 
of  themselves."  Perhaps  this  is  the  reason  why 
there  is  such  a  divine  economy  of  the  miracu- 
lous in  the  Word  of  God.  Careless  readers 
think  of  the  Bible  as  full  of  miracles,  but  if 
they  will  count  they  will  be  disabused  of  this 
opinion.  There  are  a  number  of  miracles  re- 
corded but  these  cluster  about  the  deliverance 
of  God's  people  from  Egypt,  the  coming  of 
our  Lord  and  the  establishing  of  the  church. 
All  can  see  that  there  was  a  reason  for  mir- 
acles at  such  times  as  these  and  all  can  see 
that,  after  the  people  had  been  established  in 
their  own  land,  after  Jesus  had  come,  after 
He  had  spoken  to  the  people,  had  been  rejected 
by  His  own,  had  been  accepted  by  the  few, 
after  the  church  had  been  planted,  its  teach- 
ings had  become  known  and  the  'snarvels  upon 


Visions  and  Voices  55 

which  it  rested  for  a  first  faith  had  been  suf- 
ficiently certified,  then  the  miracles  naturally 
would  drop  out.  God  does  not  waste  His 
time  or  His  energy.  He  furnishes  evidence 
enough  for  the  faith  of  an  honest  man.  A 
person  who  will  reject  sufficient  evidence  will 
reject  all  evidence.  If  a  man  will  not  believe 
when  he  has  proofs  enough  to  satisfy  a  rea- 
sonable person,  he  will  not  believe  at  all,  and 
God  does  not  seek  to  force  faith.  He  says, 
"He  that  believeth  shall  be  saved ;  he  that  be- 
lieveth  not  shall  be  condemned."  Saved  be- 
cause he  believes  the  truth,  condemned  be- 
cause he  rejects  the  truth.  This  is  plain  and 
reasonable.  Anyone  can  see  that  it  is  what 
ought  to  be. 

Speaking  with  Tongues. 

The  principle  just  stated  has  something  to 
do  with  a  subject  which  is  awakening  much 
thought  in  our  own  time.  I  refer  to  speaking 
with  tongues.  One  of  my  truest  and  best  friends 
became  so  earnest  about  this  gift  that  he  had 
people  praying  for  him  that  he  might  receive 
it.  He  did  not  receive  it.  He  was  a  thoughtful; 
earnest  Christian  man.  I  think  he  was  occu- 
pied by  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  had  been  for 
years.     I  believe  it  was  a  mistake  for  him  to 


56  Visions  and  Voices 

desire  this  gift.  If  he  had  prayed  for  the 
gift  of  healing,  I  could  have  seen  more  reason 
for  that,  or  for  the  gifts  of  an  apostle  or  of  a 
prophet  or  of  a  teacher,  but  I  could  never  un- 
derstand why  anyone  should  especially  desire 
the  gift  of  speaking  with  unknown  tongues.  I 
can  well  understand  why  a  person  should  de- 
sire ability  to  speak  in  a  language  which  the 
public  could  understand.  It  seems  to  me  that  it 
would  be  delightful  to  be  able  to  go  to  Japan, 
to  India,  to  China,  to  the  islands  of  the  sea  and 
speak  without  the  labor  of  learning  the  lan- 
guage of  the  people  of  those  countries.  So  far 
as  I  know,  it  has  never  been  done  since  the 
Day  of  Pentecost.  On  that  particular  occa- 
sion when  the  church  was  to  be  launched,  men 
who  spoke  some  fifteen  or  twenty  different 
languages  heard  the  apostles,  Galileans,  speak- 
ing each  man  in  his  mother  tongue.  There 
was  a  reason  for  this.  It  was  the  launching 
of  the  Christian  church,  a  movement  which 
has  continued  with  ever-increasing  power  up 
to  this  present  moment.  I  believe  that  today 
if  there  were  an  equal  occasion  there  would  be 
the  same  result.  I  am  not  disposed  to  deny, 
though  perhaps  I  may  doubt,  that  there  have 
been  individual  instances  in  which  men  have 
acquired  languages  so  rapidly  that  the  work 


Visions  and  Voices  57 

was  practically  miraculous;  but  speaking  in 
tongues,  which  are  not  known  to  the  person 
who  speaks  and  not  known  to  the  person  who 
listens,  seems  to  be  so  nearly  useless  that  one 
would  not  believe  such  a  thing  to  have 
occurred  unless  it  were  stated  in  the  Word  of 
God. 

Paul  gives  a  true  estimate  of  this  sort  of 
gift  when  he  says,  "I  would  rather  speak  five 
words  with  my  understanding  than  ten  thou- 
sand words  in  an  unknown  tongue"  (I  Cor. 
14:19).  In  this  connection  he  says  that  he 
speaks  with  tongues  more  than  all  the  rest  of 
them.  I  do  not  deny  that  he  may  have  spoken 
in  what  is  now  called  tongues.  He  may  have 
done  so.  If  he  did,  he  did  not  highly  value 
the  gift.  Five  words  of  understanding  he 
considered  better  than  ten  thousand  words 
of  that  sort. 

Some  years  since  a  good  woman  in  our  town 
felt  that  she  ought  to  go  to  India  as  a  mis- 
sionary. She  was  more  than  fifty  years  of 
age,  as  deaf  as  it  is  possible  for  a  human 
being  to  be.  As  I  remember  her  she  could 
hear  absolutely  nothing.  I  remember  she  said 
in  a  farewell  meeting  in  our  church,  "I  sup- 
pose it  is  counted  as  a  sort  of  insanity  for  a 
woman  of  my  age  and  infirmity  to  go  to  In- 


58  Visions  and  Voices 

dia,  but,"  she  said,  "in  these  days  God  has  to 
work  with  most  anybody  He  can  get."  She 
went  out  to  that  country.  It  was  just  after 
the  famine.  There  were  literally  tens  of 
thousands  of  children  and  others  nearly  dead 
from  starvation.  She  washed  them,  fed  them 
and  clothed  them  and  was  like  an  angel  of 
mercy.  She  returned,  after  about  ten  years 
of  such  service,  glad  and  happy  that  God  had 
used  her  as  He  had. 

There  are  teachers  who  would  say  that  she 
could  have  no  evidence  that  she  had  received 
the  Holy  Spirit  unless  she  could  talk  in  words 
which  nobody  understood,  not  even  herself. 
This  seems  to  me  to  be  not  according  to  rea- 
son or  Scripture.  Whatever  we  may  think 
of  this  particular  subject,  we  must  believe  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  spoke  truthfully  and  wisely 
when  He  said,  "We  have  a  more  sure  word 
of  prophecy." 

The  Bible  Is  More  Sure  than  Visions  and 
Voices. 

It  remains  the  same  through  thousands  of 
years.  Visions  and  voices  pass  away.  The 
Bible  can  be  translated  into  myriads  of 
tongues.  Visions  and  voices  have  their  little 
day  and  pass.    The  Bible  can  be  examined  by 


Visions  and  Voices  59 

millions  of  humble,  earnest  students.  It  has 
been  examined  by  millions  of  such  persons, 
and  if  the  Lord  tarry  it  will  still  be  examined 
by  millions  more.  But  the  vision  and  the 
voice  are  for  the  one  or  the  two  who  behold 
or  hear  and  then  pass  away.  The  vision  and 
the  voice,  if  they  were  to  be  repeated, 
would  lose  their  power  by  repetition.  The 
Word  of  God,  repeated  from  father  to  son, 
from  mother  to  daughter,  from  age  to  age, 
and  still  from  age  to  age,  ever  grows  in  power 
as  it  becomes  a  part  of  the  spiritual  fiber  of 
man. 

I  suppose  that  some  dl  my  readers  have 
wished  that  they  might  see  visions  and  hear 
heavenly  voices.  Perhaps  some  of  them  have 
thought  that  the  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the 
Gospel  would  be  more  certain  if  it  were  thus 
confirmed.  Dives  thought  thus  in  Hades. 
When  Abraham  said  to  him  that  his  brothers 
had  Moses  and  the  prophets  and  that  they 
should  listen  to  them,  he  said,  "Nay,  father 
Abraham:  but  if  one  went  unto  them  from 
the  dead,  they  will  repent."  But  Abraham 
said,  No,  if  they  will  not  hear  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  they  would  not  believe  if  one  were 
to  be  raised  from  the  dead  (Luke  16). 


6o  Visions  and  Voices 

Death-Bed  Repentances. 

A  common  experience  in  the  lives  of  earnest 
workers  confirms  this  testimony  of  Abra- 
ham. When  careless  and  wicked  men  are 
brought  down  to  death,  oftentimes  they  im- 
agine themselves  repentant  and  believing. 
What  the  Word  has  not  done,  death  seems 
to  do.  Many  times  they  furnish  such  testi- 
mony that  in  Christian  charity  we  are  bound 
to  accept  it  and  believe  they  are  actually 
changed.  In  how  many  instances,  however, 
do  we  find  it  true  that  with  the  passage  of 
the  fear  there  is  also  a  loss  of  the  faith? 
Cases  are  not  unknown,  unfortunately  they 
are  not  rare,  where  these  death-bed  repent- 
ances have  proved  to  be  the  introduction  to 
lives  of  frightful  wickedness.  At  times  it 
seems  that  the  very  fear,  which  has  driven  men 
near  to  God  in  professed  faith,  irritates  them 
when  they  come  to  health  and  strength  and 
leads  them  to  grosser  wickedness  than  they 
have  hitherto  known.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
men  who  will  reject  the  Word  of  God  will  not 
be  seriously  affected  by  anything  else.  Ex- 
ceptions here  and  there  there  are.  I  have  my- 
self known  one  man  who  was  converted  by 
an  earthquake.    He  said  to  me  that  when  he 


Visions  and  Voices  6i 

felt  the  earth  quaking  under  his  feet  and  saw- 
buildings  tottering  around  him  he  thought  it 
was  time  for  him  to  call  upon  God,  but  the 
visions  and  voices  in  most  instances  are  valu- 
able for  those  who  believe  rather  than  for 
those  who  are  yet  unrepentant.  God  may  use 
them  for  anyone.  If  man  will  allow  Him  to 
do  so,  He  will,  for  God  is  determined  to  save 
all  men  who  will  willingly  be  saved.  No  man 
is  lost  of  whom  our  Lord  does  not  say,  "You 
would  not  come  to  me  that  you  might  be 
saved." 

But  we  ought  to  comfort  ourselves  with  the 
thought  of  the  unshaking  Word  of  God.  The 
marvelous  rock  of  holy  Scripture  which  has 
withstood  the  lashing  of  all  seas  through  all 
ages  will  stand  when  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
have  passed  away.  So  if  the  reader  has  had 
doubts  and  fears  and  questions  as  to  the  suf- 
ficiency of  evidence,  if  he  has  sometimes  even 
in  heart  if  not  in  language  desired  marvels 
that  he  might  believe,  let  him  remember  that 
he  has  the  Lord  Jesus  who  is  quite  sufficient 
for  his  needs.  Let  him  seek  to  live  up  to  the 
Word  which  he  has  received,  and  he  will  find 
all  the  evidences  that  he  can  desire. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SHOULD  WE  SAY  WE  BELIEVE  OR 
THAT  WE  KNOW? 

I  raise  this  question  because  I  believe  it  to 
be  very  important.  Should  my  reader  say,  I 
believe  the  Bible  is  the  Word  of  God,  or 
should  he  say,  I  know  the  Bible  is  the  Word 
of  God?  I  do  not  remember  who  it  is,  but 
someone  defines  knowledge  as  ^'certainty  that 
something  is."  To  know  is  to  be  sure  of  fact. 
If  I  say  I  believe,  there  is  in  the  very  word 
the  shade  of  uncertainty.  If  I  say  I  know, 
the  very  utterance  helps  to  confirm  faith. 
Certainly  we  have  no  right  to  say  we  know  if 
we  do  not  know.  A  humble,  beautiful  child 
of  God  said  to  me  recently  respecting  the  ill- 
ness of  his  wife  which  had  continued  through 
years :  "I  do  not  believe  we  ought  to  say  we 
have  faith  when  we  have  not  faith."  Certain- 
ly we  ought  not  nor  ought  we  to  say,  "I  know 
the  Bible  to  be  the  Word  of  God,"  when  in 
our  inmost  hearts  we  doubt.  But  it  is  well 
that  we  know  whether  we  may  know  or  not. 


Should  We  Say  We  Believe  63 

Knowledge  is  based  upon  evidence  of  some 
kind.  One  who  does  not  consider  evidence 
will  not  know,  but  one  who  does  honestly 
consider  evidence,  if  it  is  sufficient,  will  know, 
and  if  this  is  our  privilege  respecting  the 
Word  of  God,  certainly  it  is  also  our  duty. 
When  we  take  up  v.he  Bible,  if  it  is  God's 
Word  and  if  there  is  sufficient  evidence  to 
enable  us  to  know  that  it  is  the  Word  of  God, 
we  ought  to  know  and  we  should  be  ready 
to  say,  "I  know."  We  have  no  right  to  be 
uncertain  if  God  has  made  it  possible  for  us 
to  be  sure.  So  I  invite  my  reader  to  reflect 
upon  the  situation  and  to  find  out,  God  help- 
ing, whether  he  has  a  right  to  know  or  not, 
whether  he  has  a  right  to  say  "I  know"  or 
not,  and  having  reflected  and  considered  the 
proofs  to  take  the  highest  ground  which  God 
is  willing  for  him  to  occupy. 

Limits  of  Human  Understanding. 

Years  ago  a  company  of  English  scholars 
were  gathered  and  together  were  considering 
some  of  the  great  questions  respecting  Chris- 
tian faith  and  human  life.  They  did  not  seem 
to  arrive  at  any  satisfactory  conclusion  and 
finally  one  of  them  said,  "Is  It  possible  that 
we  are  dealing  with  subjects  where  certainty 


64  Visions  and  Voices 

is  impossible?  Ought  we  not  to  raise  the 
question  whether  or  not  it  is  possible  for  us  to 
arrive  at  certainty  respecting  these  matters 
of  which  we  have  been  speaking  ?"  The  result 
of  this  suggestion  was  that  Dr.  John  Locke 
began  his  essay  on  "The  Limits  of  the  Human 
Understanding."  It  was  an  epoch-making 
book  and,  together  with  its  criticism  by  the 
great  French  philosopher  Cousin,  would  con- 
stitute a  splendid  course  in  logic  for  any  man 
who  really  desired  to  know  how  to  think.  I 
have  not  the  time  here  nor  have  I  the  dispo- 
sition to  review  these  two  great  books,  but  I 
desire  that  the  thought  which  led  to  the  writ- 
ing of  the  essay  on  the  limits  of  the  human 
understanding  should  be  clearly  defined  in  the 
minds  of  my  friends. 

What  can  a  man  know  and  how  can  a  man 
know  it?  Of  course  I  have  as  an  ultimate 
question.  Can  a  man  know  the  Bible  to  be 
God's  Word  or  is  this  one  of  the  things  which 
is  left  in  the  region  of  the  uncertain,  the  un- 
determined? If  the  limits  of  the  human  un- 
derstanding are  such  that  we  cannot  really 
know  whether  the  Bible  is  God's  Word  or 
not,  we  must  do  the  best  we  can.  If  we  may 
know  and  if,  through  intellectual  idleness  of 
spiritual  sloth,  we  refuse  to  consider  the  evi- 


Should  We  Say  We  Believe  65 

dence  and  therefore  do  not  arrive  at  certainty, 
we  ought  to  repent  and  do  the  first  works. 

Sources  of  Knowledge. 

One  of  the  difficulties  with  careless  thinkers 
is  that  they  do  not  understand  that  different 
facts  may  be  ascertained  through  different 
faculties.  The  senses  give  us  the  external 
world;  we  see,  we  hear,  we  smell,  we  taste, 
we  touch,  we  weigh,  we  measure,  we  divide, 
we  add,  we  subtract,  we  multiply ;  and  all  the 
while  we  are  dealing  with  things,  objects  of 
sense.  This  is  one  of  the  original  and  au- 
thoritative sources  of  knowledge.  The  world 
of  mental  activities  is  not  apprehensible  by 
the  senses  at  all.  No  man  ever  saw  a  hope,  or 
smelled  a  fear,  or  tasted  a  desire,  or  measured 
a  will.  Certain  nervous  reactions  which  are 
associated  with  these  psychic  movements  have 
been  measured,  at  least  as  to  time,  but  the 
things  themselves  are  hidden  far  away  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  senses  of  man.  We  know 
that  we  love  our  friends,  that  we  are  irritated 
by  careless  and  wicked  people,  that  we  con- 
sider different  possible  lines  of  activity,  that 
we  decide  on  one  line  of  action  or  another. 
These  things  we  know  through  consciousness. 
The  senses  do  not  help  us  at  all.     They  may 


66  Visions  and  Voices 

hinder  us.  He  will  arrive  at  certainty  most 
surely  and  most  quickly  who  can  separate  his 
consciousness  from  sense  activity. 

Certain  facts  we  know  through  testimony. 
They  are  not  facts  of  consciousness  nor  are 
they  objects  of  sense  perception.  Some  of 
you  know  of  Pekin,  of  Yokohama,  because 
you  have  seen  them,  but  most  of  us  on  this 
side  of  the  water  know  them  by  the  testimony 
of  other  people.  Shall  we  say  we  know  or 
shall  we  say  we  believe  ?  He  would  be  a  very 
foolish  man  who  should  affirm  that  only  those 
can  say,  I  know  there  is  such  a  city  as  Pekin, 
or  I  know  that  the  sun  is  about  ninety  millions 
of  miles  distant  from  the  earth,  who  have 
themselves  personally  seen  the  one  or  meas- 
ured the  distance  to  the  other.  Human  testi- 
mony, provided  it  be  adequate,  is  sufficient  for 
knowledge.  We  shut  men  up  in  jail  on  hu- 
man testimony,  we  take  away  their  property 
or  we  take  away  their  lives,  and  we  do  not  do 
these  things  because  we  believe  but  because 
we  know.  Yet  our  knowledge  is  derived  from 
testimony,  not  from  sense  perception,  not  from 
consciousness. 

Once  more,  we  derive  certain  knowledge 
through  the  reason  not  with  the  intervention 
of  senses,  not  in  or  through  consciousness  as 


Should  We  Say  We  Believe  (yj 

a  source.  Suppose  someone  should  tell  us  that 
it  is  true  that  in  this  world  effects  follow 
causes  and  that  without  causes  there  cannot  be 
effects,  but  that  in  Jupiter  or  in  Neptune,  in 
heaven  or  in  hell,  there  could  be  changes  with- 
out forces  in  operation.  What  would  you  say 
to  him?  Suppose  he  should  declare  that  in 
Jupiter  stones  moved  thousands  of  miles  with 
no  force  acting  upon  them,  that  buildings  were 
erected  without  builders,  or  that  books  were 
written  without  authors,  and  when  I  objected 
he  should  say,  "Well,  it  is  true  that  in  this 
world  in  order  to  get  such  effects  there  must  be 
appropriate  causes,  but  in  Jupiter  things  are 
different."  Have  I  a  right  to  say  to  him  that 
what  he  says  is  not  true?  The  causes  of  ac- 
tivities in  Jupiter  may  differ  from  the  causes 
of  activities  on  the  earth,  but  there  cannot  be 
changes  without  forces  in  operation.  Have  I 
a  right  to  say  to  him,  I  know  this,  or  should 
I  say,  I  believe  this?  If  I  know,  how  do 
I  know  ?  Not  by  the  senses,  not  by  conscious- 
ness, not  by  testimony,  but  by  reason,  God- 
given,  God-sustained.  This  is  so  evident  that 
we  should  consider  a  man  who  declared  him- 
self to  be  uncertain  about  the  matter  lacked 
ordinary  common  sense.  We  should  look  upon 
him  as  an  idiot  or  a  madman,  and  we  should 


68  Visions  and  Voices 

properly  consider  him  so,  for  reason  affirms 
the  principle  of  causality.  No  change  with- 
out some  force  in  operation  and  no  force  in 
operation  without  producing  some  change.  This 
is  an  affirmation  of  the  reason.  It  is  quite  as 
positive  as  the  affirmations  of  sense  or  con- 
sciousness or  affirmations  based  upon  testi- 
mony. 

I  remember  one  of  my  pastors  who  once 
said,  speaking  of  the  phrase  /  know,  "It  is  like 
the  sword  of  Goliath,  there  is  none  like  it." 
No  man  has  a  right  to  dwell  in  the  midst  of 
uncertainties  when  God  has  made  it  possible 
for  him  to  be  sure.  I  have  run  over  this  bit 
of  mind  study  for  the  purpose  of  arriving  at 
a  satisfactory  answer  to  the  question  of  this 
chapter.  Shall  I  say,  I  know  the  Bible  is 
God's  Word,  or  shall  I  say,  I  believe,  or  I 
think,  or  even  I  hope? 

A  Needle  and  an  Anvil. 

Take  a  fine  cambric  needle  in  your  hand 
and  consider  it  attentively.  Look  at  its  shape, 
feel  the  smoothness  of  the  lines,  the  sharp- 
ness of  the  point  and  look  at  the  delicacy  of 
the  eye.  Suppose  some  man  should  say  to 
you  when  you  ask  him  who  made  the  needle 
that  a  neighbor  of  his  made  it  with  a  black- 


Should  We  Say  We  Believe  (yg 

smith's  hammer  on  an  anvil.  You  have  seen 
hammers  and  anvils,  you  know  what  they  are 
like.  You  know  about  the  surface  of  the 
anvil  and  the  surface  of  the  blacksmith's  ham- 
mer, and  you  pause  and  you  reflect  and  in- 
quire. Your  informer  insists.  He  says.  Yes, 
the  blacksmith  makes  those  needles  on  his  an- 
vil with  a  hammer.  Do  you  believe  the  wit- 
ness to  tell  the  truth?  Can  you  believe  him  if 
you  desire  ?  Do  you  say  to  him,  I  doubt  your 
statement,  or  do  you  say  to  him,  Your  state- 
ment is  not  true?  Of  course  you  seek  to  be 
courteous  and  you  will  put  your  affirmation 
into  as  kindly  a  language  as  possible.  I  am 
not  merely  speaking  of  form,  I  am  speaking 
of  fact.  Do  you  know  that  the  cambric  needle 
is  of  such  character  that  a  man  could  not 
forge  it  with  a  blacksmith's  hammer  on  a 
blacksmith's  anvil,  or  not? 

Supposing  a  man  would  say  to  you  that  the 
Bible  was  written  by  man,  that  God  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  it  except  that  He  made  the 
men  who  made  the  Book.  With  this  great 
proposition  as  a  starting  point,  you  begin  to 
read.  You  do  not  read  carelessly,  thought- 
lessly, but  carefully  and  with  meditation.  You 
take  up  the  historic  books,  you  pass  through 
the  books  of  devotion,  you  consider  the  books 


70  Visions  and  Voices 

of  prophecy,  you  study  the  biographies,  you 
take  up  the  letters  and  finally  you  end  with 
those  two  wonderful  chapters,  the  twenty-first 
and  twenty-second  of  Revelation.  You  de- 
termine as  well  as  you  can  the  times  and  the 
places  where  these  books  were  written,  the 
persons  by  whom  they  were  written.  You 
examine  the  effects  which  they  have  produced 
on  the  lives  of  individuals  in  homes,  in  com- 
munities, in  nations.  You  do  not  raise  any 
question  of  the  miraculous,  you  deal  only  with 
obvious  facts.  When  you  have  completed  a 
study  of  this  sort,  what  have  you  a  right  to 
say?  Can  you  say,  I  know  this  Book  to  be 
the  Word  of  God  ?  Can  you  say,  I  know  this 
Book  to  be  the  work  of  man?  Can  you  say 
I  know  this  Book  to  be  in  part  divine  and  in 
part  human?  Can  you  know  anything  about 
it  or  are  you  shut  up  to  doubts,  to  beliefs,  to 
thinkings?  I  am  well  aware  of  the  fact  that 
different  minds  are  impressed  differently  by 
the  same  occurrences.  But  while  this  is  true 
it  is  also  true  that  all  minds  are  subject  to  cer- 
tain general  laws.  No  sane  man  can  believe 
that  a  baby  three  years  old  takes  a  building 
five  hundred  feet  long  in  his  hand  and  throws 
it  a  hundred  yards.  It  makes  no  difference 
who  tells  him  that  it  is  true.     He  not  only 


Should  We  Say  We  Believe  71 

does  not  believe  it;  he  says  that  it  is  a  lie. 
And  he  is  quite  right,  it  would  be  a  lie.  There 
is  no  advantage  in  trifling  with  statements  like 
this. 

Suppose,  now,  we  think  of  the  life  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  prophesied  and  revealed  in  the  Word 
of  God.  Suppose  some  man  to  tell  us  that 
He  was  merely  a  human  being.  Or  suppose 
one  to  do  as  some  have  done  and  tell  us  that 
there  never  was  such  a  Person  at  all,  that  He 
is  the  result  of  the  myth-forming  tendency  in 
the  human  race.  Yet  here  are  the  facts. 
Throughout  the  civilized  world  the  cross  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  lifted  into  the  air  from  noble 
cathedrals,  worn  on  golden  chains  about  the 
necks  of  beautiful  women,  housed  in  many 
books.  Consider  the  transformations  of  char- 
acter which  are  continually  resulting  in  mis- 
sions, in  homes,  in  churches,  and  will  you  say, 
I  do  not  believe  you  are  right,  or  will  you  say, 
I  know  that  you  are  wrong?  Napoleon  is 
not  generally  considered  to  have  been  espe- 
cially fanatical  on  the  subject  of  Christian 
faith,  but  even  he  said,  "I  know  men  and  I 
know  that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  a  man."  I  do 
not  believe  that  any  reasonably  intelligent  and 
fairly  honest  man  can  consider  candidly  the 
internal  and  external  evidences  for  the  divine 


72  Visions  and  Voices 

character  of  the  Bible  without  coming  to  the 
conclusion  that  a  human  origin  for  such  a 
Book  is  absolutely  impossible.  I  believe  that 
any  such  person,  having  candidly  considered 
the  facts  in  the  case,  will  not  only  feel  that 
he  may  say  "I  know"  but  that  as  a  reasonable 
being  he  must  say  it.  If  this  is  true,  we  who 
hold  "the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the 
saints"  have  a  grave  duty  to  perform.  Let 
the  prophets  who  have  dreams  tell  them,  but 
let  us  who  have  the  Word  of  God  speak  it 
faithfully.  "What  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat? 
saith  the  Lord." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

WHAT  DO  WE  MEAN  BY  INSPIRA- 
TION? 

One  of  the  remarkable  facts  connected  with 
Biblical  criticism  is  that  a  certain  class  of  per- 
sons seem  to  delight  in  using  words  with 
meanings  absolutely  foreign  to  those  which 
they  originally  bore.  Is  Jesus  Christ  divine? 
''Certainly  He  is  divine.  All  men  are  divine. 
You  are  divine."  So  this  great  word  which 
used  to  imply  Godhead  is  dwarfed  so  that 
it  may  mean  a  drunken  pedlar  or  a  dishonest 
politician.  "Divine?  Certainly.  Of  course 
Jesus  is  divine.    All  men  are  divine." 

Just  so  respecting  the  Word  of  God.  When 
in  the  olden  time  men  said  that  the  Bible  was 
God-breathed  they  meant  what  they  said,  that 
God  by  supernatural  methods  communicated 
His  will  to  men  and  that  the  result  of  this 
communication  was  the  Book  which  we  have 
in  our  hands.  This,  however,  is  past  and  now 
men  say,  "The  Bible  inspired?  Certainly. 
Longfellow  is  inspired.  Lowell  is  inspired. 
All    good    writings    are    inspired.    So    the 


74  Visions  and  Voices 

Bible  is  inspired."  To  be  sure  this  is 
not  at  all  what  the  word  "inspiration"  used  to 
mean.  But  without  any  definition  or  explana- 
tion the  moderns  rob  this  old  word  of  all  that 
it  used  to  mean.  I  will  not  characterize  the 
moral  attitude  of  such  writers  harshly.  I 
content  myself  with  saying  that  such  a  method 
of  dealing  with  literature  is  not  considered 
fairly  honest  among  business  men. 

The  word  "evolution"  has  been  subject  to 
the  same  unfortunate  treatment.  Originally 
this  word  signified  a  definite  process.  It 
meant  that  all  life  originated  in  primitive  cells 
and  that  without  divine  interposition  this 
primitive  life  differentiated  itself  into  the 
forms  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  which  ex- 
ist on  the  globe.  The  simpler  species  by  these 
processes  of  natural  selection,  the  survival  of 
the  fittest,  etc.,  became  more  complex  and  thus 
life  without  supervision  or  supernatural 
power  has  come  to  be  what  it  is.  Man  is  the 
summit  of  the  ascending  series  of  animal 
lives  so  far  as  his  body  is  concerned.  Some 
insistent  and  courageous  persons  conclude  that 
the  soul  was  subject  to  like  processes,  that 
it  came  little  by  little  to  be  what  it  is.  Not  by 
divine  creative  act  but  by  an  evolution,  primi- 
tive sensations  coming  at  last  to  be  memory. 


What  Do  We  Mean  75 

imagination,  reverence,  hope,  fear,  etc.,  etc. 
Of  course  this  is  only  a  partial  account  of  the 
matter,  for  the  question  that  must  arise  is, 
Where  did  this  original  cell  life  come  from? 
and  here  the  evolutionists  differ.  Some  be- 
lieve in  spontaneous  generation  and  try  to  get 
other  people  to  believe  that  life  without  crea- 
tive power  came  to  be  from  certain  physical 
elements  as  carbon,  oxygen,  hydrogen,  nitro- 
gen, and  the  like.  Others  declared  that  God 
must  have  started  the  process  and  implanted 
in  the  primitive  cells  the  law  by  which  they 
came  to  be  the  flora  and  the  fauna  of  the 
world.  This  is  no  place  nor  is  there  time  to 
discuss  the  subject  of  evolution. 

I  wish  to  remind  my  reader,  however,  that 
the  word  "evolution"  has  now  come  to  have 
for  many  men  a  totally  different  significance 
from  that  which  it  originally  possessed.  To 
many  persons  at  the  present  time  evolution 
means  simply  the  progress  of  an  individual 
from  infancy  to  maturity,  the  germination  of 
human  life,  ending  in  the  full  man,  the  ger- 
mination of  the  egg,  producing  the  chick  or 
the  bird,  the  germination  of  the  seed  from  the 
time  the  brown  coat  is  softened  and  warmed 
until  the  time  when  the  tree  or  the  plant  lifts 
itself  into  the  sky,  an  object  of  beauty.     This 


76  Visions  and  Voices 

is  said  to  be  an  evolution,  and  persons  are  told 
that  everybody  believes  in  evolution,  as  indeed 
of  course  everybody  does,  if  this  is  what  is 
meant  by  the  word.  It  is  extremely  difficult 
now  to  find  in  a  Christian  newspaper  or  a 
book  written  by  a  Christian  evolutionist  clear 
writing  as  to  definition,  but  persons  who  wish 
to  be  considered  scholarly  talk  about  evolu- 
tion as  one  of  the  assured  results  of  scientific 
research  and  at  the  same  time  do  not  take 
pains  to  tell  us  what  they  mean  by  the  word 
which  they  use.  This  is  an  apparent  dis- 
honesty. I  do  not  wish  to  say  that  it  is  dis- 
honest for  I  think  that  in  many  cases  the 
trouble  is  ignorance  and  carelessness  rather 
than  intentional  deceit.  But  certainly  a  man 
who  uses  a  word  like  evolution  ought  to  know 
what  he  means  by  it  and  his  readers  and  hear- 
ers also  ought  to  know,  and  for  them  to  say 
evolution  means  progress  from  infancy  to  ma- 
turity when  the  word  itself  means  a  progress 
from  species  to  species  without  divine  power 
interfering,  is  not  a  straightforward  line  of 
action.  I  have  no  quarrel  with  a  man  who  says 
what  he  means,  who  means  what  he  says,  and 
is  clear  in  his  utterances,  but  cuttlefish-dealing 
with  subjects  like  these  is  entirely  out  of  order 


What  Do  We  Mean  ^j^j 

and  ought  not  to  be  practiced  or  tolerated  by 
intelligent  or  honest  men. 

What  the  Word  "Inspiration"  Means. 

Certainly  for  many  years  it  meant  a  divine 
force  acting  upon  the  human  mind  so  that  the 
person  inspired  did  not  speak  or  act  accord- 
ing to  his  own  knowledge,  wisdom  or  will, 
but  acted  or  spoke  according  to  the  knowl- 
edge, wisdom  and  will  of  God.  In  those 
days  the  Bible  was  said  to  be  inspired. 
No  one  had  any  difficulty  in  knowing 
what  was  intended  by  this  statement.  The 
persons  who  used  it  believed  that  God  com- 
municated His  will  to  men  and  caused  men 
to  write  or  speak  His  will  to  other  men,  so 
that  in  the  books  of  the  Bible  we  have  not  a 
record  of  man's  thoughts,  but  a  record  of 
God's  thinking ;  that  we  have  not  in  these  mar- 
velous books  some  lines  of  action  laid  down 
which  man  approved  or  thought  necessary, 
but  those  which  God  willed,  for  which  He  held 
man  accountable  and  that  He  rewarded  or 
punished  according  as  man  gave  attention  to 
what  He  said,  or  failed  to  do  so. 

That  there  is  the  inspiration  of  illumination, 
when  truths  which  are  already  known  are 
caused  to  shine  in  a  clearer  light;  that  there 


yS  Visions  and  Voices 

is  the  inspiration  of  suggestion,  when  truths 
which   are   not    apprehensible    from    human 
sources  are  directly  communicated  by  the  di- 
vine; that  there  is  the  inspiration  of  words, 
when   the    Spirit   of    God   directs   men   not 
merely  as  to  the  thoughts  which  they  should 
utter  but  as  to  the  words   in  which  those 
thoughts   are   to   be   clothed.    All    of   these 
shades     of     meaning     are     admitted,     and 
thoughtful  persons  understand  precisely  what 
men   intend  by   what   they   say.    But   what 
does  the  word  inspiration  mean  when  we  are 
told  that  "all  men  are  inspired;  that  Long- 
fellow was  inspired,  that  Lowell  was  inspired, 
that  Shakespeare  was  inspired,  that  you  are 
inspired,"  etc.,  etc.?    What  does  this  mean? 
Simply  a  big  nothing.   If   inspiration  were 
cut  down  to  these  dimensions  nobody  need 
speak  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible.    They 
might  as  well  speak  of  the  inspiration  of  an 
arithmetic  or  a  spelling-book  or  a  dictionary. 
Respecting  this  subject  let  me  confess  my 
faith  and  let  me  give  such  reasons  for  it  as  I 
can  and  let  me  urge  my  fellow  men  to  do  the 
same.    Then  if  we  do  not  agree  we  shall  at 
least  understand  one  another.     If  we  will  if 
so,  at  least  we  can  all  be  honest.     I  believe 
the  word  inspiration  to  mean  what  the  fathers 


What  Do  We  Mean  79 

intended  when  they  used  that  word.  I  beUeve 
that  it  signifies  a  divine  supernatural  commu- 
nication from  God  to  man  and  that  persons 
who  are  inspired  are  inspired  for  particular 
tasks.  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab  were  inspired  to 
do  work  on  the  tabernacle ;  the  writers  of  the 
Bible  were  inspired  to  give  the  law,  the  history^ 
devotions  and  biographies  which  will  give  life 
eternal  to  men  who  pay  attention  to  them. 
God  inspires  men  to  interpret  and  expound  the 
Scriptures,  but  that  He  inspires  men  to  in- 
crease the  body  of  the  Scriptures  I  do  not  be- 
lieve, nor  will  I  believe  it  until  some  one  of 
the  prophets  of  our  time  can  oifer  his  creden- 
tials. When  our  modern,  inspired  people  will 
live  as  the  old,  inspired  folk  did,  will  write  as 
they  did,  will  produce  the  results  that  they  did, 
I  will  believe  them  to  be  inspired  also,  but 
until  then  I  shall  not  believe  them  to  be  in- 
spired. 

I  believe  the  Bible  to  be  thus  inspired  be- 
cause of  all  the  proofs  by  which  thoughtful 
people  are  surrounded.  I  believe  the  miracles 
recorded  in  the  Bible  to  have  been  wrought. 
I  believe  the  prophecies  to  have  been  largely 
fulfilled  and  to  be  yet  fulfilling.  I  believe  the 
moral  teaching  of  the  Bible  to  be  so  lofty  and 
sublime  that  no  man  can  really  know  what  it 


8o  Visions  and  Voices 

is  without  admitting  to  himself,  if  not  to 
others,  the  impossibiUty  that  such  teaching 
should  ever  have  originated  among  sinful  men. 
I  believe  the  history  of  the  Bible  when  really 
known,  to  be  true.  I  believe  the  scientific 
statements  of  the  Bible  to  be  accurate,  and 
because  of  moral  tone,  miraculous  informa- 
tion, prophetic  information  and  the  wonderful 
results  in  human  character  and  society  pro- 
duced by  this  Book,  I  believe  it  to  have  been 
inspired.  I  think  it  absurd  to  the  verge  of 
insanity  for  anyone  to  hold  that  such  a  Book, 
working  such  transformations,  could  have 
originated  anywhere  short  of  the  throne  of 
God.  I  wish  that  my  fellow  students  of  the 
Bible  would  do  as  I  am  seeking  to  do.  I  wish 
they  would  tell  us  what  they  really  understand 
the  Bible  to  be.  I  wish  they  would  write  brief 
statements  on  my  subject,  "Who  Wrote  the 
Bible?"  If  they  believe  that  man  wrote  it,  I 
wish  they  would  say  so.  If  they  believe  that 
men  wrote  it  in  part  but  not  in  whole,  I  wish 
they  would  tell  us  what  portion  of  it  they  be- 
lieve to  be  human  and  what  portion  of  it  they 
believe  to  be  divine.  And  I  wish  they  would 
tell  us  in  plain  language  why  they  believe  what 
they  believe.  I  profess  to  be  a  free  seeker 
after  truth.     I  do  not  believe  that  I  am  in  any 


What  Do  We  Mean  8i 

way  wedded  to  the  past.  I  will  just  as  freely 
believe  and  teach  one  thing  about  the  Bible  as 
another,  provided  there  is  evidence  and  I  can 
know  that  it  is  true.  I  believe  I  am  in  a  state 
of  mind  where  I  can  listen  patiently  and  can- 
didly to  any  man  who  has  a  real  faith  which 
he  is  able  to  express  in  fairly  good  English 
and  which  seems  to  him  important.  But 
really  we  ought  to  have  done  with  the  sucking 
of  eggs,  with  taking  out  from  words,  which 
have  clearly  established  meanings,  these  mean- 
ings, and  causing  them  to  signify  something 
else  without  telling  us  what  they  now  believe 
the  old  word  to  signify  and  why  they  believe 
what  they  believe. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
WHAT  IS  A  MIRACLE? 

This  English  word  is  derived  from  the 
Latin  word  miraculum,  which  means  simply 
a  wonder.  It  is  obvious  that  miracles  will 
vary  with  the  character  and  training  of  the 
people  among  whom  they  are  said  to  be 
wrought.  What  would  be  a  wonder  to  one 
man  will  not  be  a  wonder  to  another  man 
who  has  a  different  training.  So  much  we  set 
down  as  a  first  remark. 

In  the  second  place,  there  are  certain  events 
which  so  far  vary  from  the  ordinary  opera- 
tions of  nature  that  they  are  properly  called 
miracles  and  would  be  so  recognized  by  all 
persons  who  were  acquainted  with  them. 
Take  for  example  the  raising  of  a  dead  man 
to  life.  It  is  the  rule  that  when  the  body  of 
a  man  is  dead  it  decays.  It  is  not  according 
to  human  experience  that  dead  bodies  are  re- 
animated. If  an  event  of  this  kind  should  oc- 
cur, it  would  be  a  miraculum,  a  wonder,  a 
miracle.  All  people  would  call  it  so  unless 
they  were  possessed  by  a  desire  to  be  peculiar. 


What  Is  a  Miracle  83 

Supposing  a  person  to  be  subject  to  a  serious 
disease  like  leprosy  or  a  raging  fever,  and  sup- 
pose another  to  come  into  the  presence  of  the 
sick  man  and  by  a  touch  and  a  word  cause  him 
to  be  well.  This  again  would  be  a  miracle,  a 
miraculum,  a  wonder.  Ordinarily  when  there 
are  diseases  of  this  kind,  remedies  are  used 
and  time  is  an  element  in  the  case.  If  with- 
out any  means  employed  and  without  any  time 
allowed  to  pass,  the  leper  is  cleansed  so  that 
his  skin  becomes  fair  and  smooth,  the  fevered 
man  becomes  healed  so  that  his  temperature 
goes  to  normal  and  he  is  able  to  attend  to  his 
work,  we  have  here  a  case  of  the  miraculous. 

If  a  man  were  swallowed  by  a  great  fish, 
he  would  be  in  danger  of  suffocation  and 
would  be  instantly  attacked  by  the  gastric 
juice.  The  rule  would  be  that  in  a  few  mo- 
ments he  would  become  unconscious  and  in  a 
short  time  he  would  be  dead.  If  it  should  be 
found  that  in  a  certain  instance  a  man  swal- 
lowed by  a  great  fish  had  lived  for  a  period  of 
three  days,  that  he  had  been  sufficiently  con- 
scious to  pray  while  in  the  fish  and  that 
thereafter  he  had  been  thrown  out  upon  the 
land  and  had  gone  about  his  work,  it  would 
be  clear  that  we  have  here  a  series  of  events, 
not  according  to  nature,  but  wonders,  mir- 


84  Visions  and  Voices 

acles,  miracula.  The  age  in  which  we  live,  a 
pleasure-loving  age,  an  age  of  great  scientific 
attainment,  an  age  of  consequent  self-conceit, 
does  not  like  to  admit  the  supernatural.  One 
who  examines  the  objections  to  the  Bible  will 
find  the  objection  to  the  supernatural  lying  at 
the  foundation  of  pretty  much  all  that  is  said 
on  the  subject.  As  the  "Reign  of  Law"  be- 
comes manifest,  the  record  of  events  which  we 
are  not  able  to  harmonize  with  known  law  be- 
comes questioned.  I  desire,  therefore,  to 
have  you  spend  a  little  time  on  the  general 
subject  of  miracles,  laying  thus  a  foundation 
for  a  special  examination  of  the  miracles  of 
the  Bible,  which,  if  God  permit,  may  follow. 
And  first  I  wish  to  remind  my  reader  that  so 
far  as  the  possibility  of  real  miracles  is  con- 
cerned the  question  is  as  to  the  existence  and 
power  and  will  of  God. 

Professed  atheists  in  our  time  are  compara- 
tively few.  When  I  was  a  boy  there  were 
many  of  these  people,  but  at  the  present  time 
those  who  are  atheists  call  themselves  agnos- 
tics, that  is,  they  do  not  deny  the  existence  of 
God  but  they  say  they  do  not  know  whether 
He  exists  or  not.  When,  however,  men  deny 
the  possibility  of  miracles,  they  are  occupying 
distinctly   atheistic  ground.    That   God   has 


What  Is  a  Miracle  85 

created  the  universe  and  governs  it  by  gen- 
eral laws  is  unquestionably  true.  This  is  a 
question  of  fact  which  is  determined  by  the 
observation  of  all  men.  But  the  fact  that  the 
usual  administration  of  God  is  by  general  laws 
is  no  proof  that  God  does  not  at  times  inter- 
fere with  the  ordinary  progress  of  events  and 
performs  miracles.  No  man  who  is  really  in 
his  right  mind  would  deny  that  a  Being  who 
could  create  the  universe  could  modify  its 
actions  if  He  pleased.  One  of  our  old  hymns 
used  to  say: 

"He  can  create  and  He  destroy." 

Surely  if  He  can  create,  He  might  destroy. 

If  God  were  man,  then  the  universe  might 
be  a  Frankenstein  and  He  might  find  it  impos- 
sible to  control  the  system  which  He  had  set 
in  motion;  but  it  is  not  the  belief  of  theists 
that  God  is  man.     The  poem  says : 

"Right  is  right  and  God  is  God, 
And  right  the  day  must  win." 

Of  course  God  is  God  and,  therefore,  having 
created  the  universe,  He  can  control  it.  If  He 
chooses  to  modify  its  ordinary  activities  in  pe- 
culiar ways,  that  is  easy.  No  man  who  believes 


86  Visions  and  Voices 

in  the  existence  of  God  can  for  an  instant 
doubt  the  possibility  of  the  miracle. 

He  Might,  but  Will  He? 

That  will  depend  on  the  reasons  in  the  case. 
If  there  should  be  a  sufficient  reason,  of 
course  God,  Who  can  without  the  slightest 
difficulty  work  any  sort  of  miracles  that  He 
chooses,  will  work  one  or  two  or  ten.  There 
is  no  limit  to  be  assigned  to  His  power  except 
the  limit  of  reason.  God  will  not  do  foolish 
things,  but  whatever  is  necessary  He  will  do. 
This  is  absolutely  clear.  We  must  also  remem- 
ber that  the  necessity  of  the  miracle  is  to  be 
determined  not  by  man  but  by  God.  We 
might  think  the  raising  of  Lazarus  would  be 
entirely  an  unnecessary  event  but  the  fact 
that  we  so  think  would  not  be  decisive.  Per- 
haps God  did  see  reasons  for  such  a  transac- 
tion. We  are  not  to  set  bounds  and  give  laws 
to  the  Ruler  of  the  universe.  Undoubtedly 
some  men  would  be  glad  to  do  this.  Beyond 
doubt  some  men  think  themselves  quite  com- 
petent to  do  this.  Nevertheless  the  fact  re- 
mains that  God  does  not  take  advice  of  men 
as  to  the  management  of  the  universe.  If  He 
should  wait  for  a  vote  before  He  sent  a  rain 
storm  or  a  month  of  sunny  weather,  it  would 


What  Is  a  Miracle  87 

be  amusing  to  see  how  the  world  would  get 
on;  and  just  so  regarding  the  unusual  acts 
which  He  performs  in  the  management  of  the 
world.  He  is  governed  by  His  own  judg- 
ment, not  by  man's  ignorance,  and  men  who 
are  not  willing  that  God  should  manage  the 
world  may  criticize  Him  if  they  desire  and 
may  unsettle  His  throne  if  they  are  able.  But 
Christian  people  admit  that  God  can  work 
miracles,  that  He  will  work  miracles  if  they 
are  necessary,  and  that  He  will  be  the  judge 
as  to  their  necessity  and  will  not  take  advice 
of  men. 

I  am  far  from  assuming  that  many  of  the 
acts  of  God  do  not  seem  entirely  reasonable 
to  thoughtful  men.  I  believe  that  all  of  them 
do  when  men  will  take  time  and  will  consider 
the  facts  in  the  case.  Let  us  spend  a  moment 
on  Jonah.  What  was  the  situation  ?  A  great 
city  of  possibly  a  million  of  inhabitants  was 
rotting  to  pieces  from  its  sin.  God  ordered 
a  certain  prophet  to  go  and  warn  the  city  that 
it  might  repent  and  that  judgment  might  be 
averted.  "Yet  forty  days  and  Nineveh  shall 
be  destroyed."  That  is  if  it  will  not  repent,  if 
it  continues  in  sin.  This  is  clearly  the  teach- 
ing. Jonah  was  afraid  to  go  and  ran  away, 
as  many  a  preacher,  teacher.  Christian,  has 


88  Visions  and  Voices 

done  since.    The  probability  is  that  scores  if 
not  hundreds  of  people  will  read  these  words 
who  are  at  the  time  they  read  them  doing  just 
what  Jonah  did,  that  is,  running  away  from 
disagreeable  duties.     Still  God's  purposes  of 
mercy  for  the  city  continued  and  He  arrested 
the  prophet  on  his  runaway  trip;  arrested 
him  in  a  miraculous  manner,  that  is,  caused 
him  to  be  swallowed  by  a  fish,  and  in  place  of 
being   smothered   and  digested  by  the  fish, 
caused  him  to  live,  to  be  conscious,  to  pray 
and  finally  to  be  delivered.     Having  this  tre- 
mendous lesson  thus  taught,  God  said  to  him, 
"Go  preach  to  Nineveh  the  preaching  that  I 
bid  thee."   This  time  he  went,  and  day  after 
day  in  that  great  wicked  city  he  warned  the 
people  of  impending  judgment.    They  heard 
and,  more  sensible  than  some  men  of  our 
time,  they  were  afraid.     The  king  himself  was 
afraid.    He  put  on  emblems  of  mourning  and 
made  proclamation  that  his  people  should  turn 
from  their  sins,  if  possibly  the  penalties  de- 
served might  be  averted.     God  saw  that  the 
city  repented  and  He  spared  it.    There  were 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  children  in 
it  who  had  not  yet  come  to  the  age  of  moral 
accountability.    There  were  great  numbers  of 
cattle  in  the  city  that  had  done  no  evil,  yet 


What  Is  a  Miracle  89 

which  would  suffer  if  a  judgment  like  that  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  should  fall  upon  it. 
What  was  the  reason  that  the  people  listened 
to  the  preaching  of  Jonah?  Is  it  probable 
that  just  escaping  from  his  living  doom  he 
failed  to  tell  the  people  his  experience?  Is 
it  probable  that  the  sailors  who  had  seen  him 
and  known  of  the  storm  and  his  being  cast 
into  the  sea  said  nothing  on  the  subject?  Is 
it  not  very  probable  that  the  reason  why  his 
message  was  attended  to  and  the  city  was 
saved  was  because  he  could  say  to  the  people, 
I  was  a  coward.  I  tried  to  avoid  delivering 
this  message  to  you.  I  ran  away,  but  God 
dealt  with  me.  Three  days  I  was  in  the  belly 
of  a  great  fish,  and  I  prayed  to  God.  There 
He  pardoned  me  and  now  I  am  here  to  tell  you 
that  if  you  repent  God  may  pardon  you  and 
if  you  do  not  repent  you  will  be  destroyed  ? 

Some  of  my  readers  may  think  this  was  en- 
tirely insufficient  as  a  reason  for  the  miracle 
which  is  alleged.  To  me  it  seems  entirely  suf- 
ficient. It  was  just  as  easy  for  God  to  keep 
Jonah  alive  in  the  belly  of  a  fish  as  to  keep 
him  alive  in  the  Waldorf-Astoria,  and  Jonah 
would  have  no  more  power  to  keep  himself 
alive  in  that  great  hotel  than  he  had  in  the  fish's 
belly.     Many  a  man   and   woman  with   un- 


go  Visions  and  Voices 

limited  means  and  with  a  hearty  disposition  to 
live  have  died  in  luxurious  hotels.  Probably 
many  more  people  have  died  in  such  places 
than  ever  died  in  fishes.  How  many  people  in 
that  great  city  which  repented  at  the  preaching 
of  Jonah  lived  thereafter  more  humble  and 
worthy  lives  ?  We  do  not  know,  but  we  know 
that  for  the  time  at  least  there  was  a  profound 
impression  produced  and  a  great  change  came 
about.  Of  this  we  are  certain.  Now  my 
wise  friend  who  knows  how  God  ought  to 
run  the  universe  and  who  apparently  wishes 
God  would  take  counsel  with  him  from  time 
to  time  respecting  it,  may  think  this  whole 
transaction  silly  and  unimportant.  I  have  my- 
self in  meetings  of  ministers  heard  jokes  re- 
garding this  event  in  this  prophet's  life,  but 
I  have  never  been  able  to  laugh  at  the  funny 
things  which  these  brethren  have  said.  To 
me  it  seems  a  very  wonderful  exhibition  of 
divine  power.  I  am  glad  that  God  cared 
enough  about  those  poor  people  in  Nineveh 
to  warn  them.  Sometimes  I  wish  He  would 
in  some  similar  fashion  warn  the  ignorant, 
suffering  people  in  Chicago  or  New  York.  If 
He  did,  husbands  would  be  better  men  and 
wives  would  have  an  easier  time.  The  jails 
would  not  be  so  full.    The  poorhouses  would 


What  Is  a  Miracle  91 

not  be  so  full.  The  insane  asylums  would 
not  be  so  full.  While  I  admit  that  we  do  not 
need  any  more  teaching  than  we  have,  and 
while  I  do  not  blame  God  for  not  working 
more  miracles  than  He  does,  when  I  see  the 
misery  which  men  bring  upon  themselves,  I 
really  wish  sometimes  we  might  have  miracles 
like  this  to  startle  a  self-complacent,  worldly, 
licentious,  untruthful  people  into  at  least  a 
momentary  sanity. 

He  Might,  but  Did  He? 

Thus  far  we  have  settled  two  questions,  if 
my  readers  have  followed  me,  as  I  trust  they 
have.  First,  it  is  a  perfectly  simple  thing  for 
God  to  work  miracles.  It  is  just  as  easy  for 
Him  to  work  miracles  as  it  is  for  us  not  to 
work  them.  In  the  second  place,  God  will 
work  miracles  if  they  are  necessary  and  of 
their  necessity  He  will  be  the  judge.  Per- 
haps we  can  see  that  there  was  a  sufficient  rea- 
son for  all  the  miracles  which  He  wrought. 
It  seems  to  me  that  I  can  see  the  reason  for 
the  miracles,  but  no  matter  whether  the  rea- 
sons seem  sufficient  to  my  friends  or  not,  God 
will  be  the  judge  as  to  the  reasons,  and  man 
will  do  wisely  to  let  Him  manage  His  own  af- 
fairs.   They  will  be  compelled  to  do  so  in  the 


92  Visions  and  Voices 

end.  It  is  just  as  well  to  do  it  pleasantly  and 
without  making  foolish  objections.  But  the 
fact  that  God  can  work  miracles  and  that  He 
will  work  miracles  if  He  thinks  wise  does  not 
prove  that  He  has  worked  them.  Here  we 
come  into  the  region  of  testimony.  We  pass 
out  from  the  region  of  pure  reason  to  the  re- 
gion of  human  affirmation.  The  evidence  for 
miracles  comes  to  us  through  men.  These 
men  are  not  the  authors  of  the  evidence.  God 
is  the  author  and  He  has  told  the  men  to  re- 
cord it.  It  is  fair  to  raise  a  question  as  to 
the  evidence  in  the  case.  Take,  for  example, 
the  miracles  connected  with  the  departure 
from  Egypt.  God  could  have  wrought  them 
all  if  they  were  necessary.  If  they  were 
necessary  God  would  have  wrought  them  all. 
It  is  declared  that  He  did  work  them  all.  Is 
the  evidence  sufficient?  Take  the  miracles 
connected  with  the  lives  of  the  prophets  Eli- 
jah, Elisha,  and  the  rest.  God  could  have 
wrought  these  miracles.  It  was  nothing  for 
Him  to  kill  fifty  or  one  hundred  men  if 
they  needed  to  be  killed  and  He  wished  to  do 
it.  Is  it  true  that  He  did  kill  one  hundred 
men  who  came  to  drag  away  one  of  His 
prophets  to  be  checked  up  by  a  worthless. 


What  Is  a  Miracle  93 

bloody  king  ?  It  is  declared  that  He  did.  Is 
the  evidence  sufficient  ? 

Take  the  miracles  connected  with  the 
launching  of  the  Christian  church,  the  mir- 
acles ascribed  to  our  Lord  and  His  apostles. 
All  sane  persons  admit  that  they  are  entirely 
possible.  The  question  is  whether  or  not  they 
actually  occurred  and  this  is  a  question  of  tes- 
timony. Is  the  evidence  sufficient?  If  so, 
we  are  bound  to  believe  them ;  if  not,  we  are 
bound  to  hold  them  in  doubt  or  reject  them 
as  the  case  may  be. 

It  is  obvious  that  an  extended  examination 
of  a  large  number  of  miracles  is  impossible  in 
a  work  having  the  purpose  which  lies  be- 
low this  one.  I  must  content  myself  with  a 
few  instances.  Let  us  take  the  exodus  from 
Egypt.  Is  there  reason  for  believing  the  mir- 
acles which  are  alleged  at  that  time  to  have 
been  wrought?  If  there  is,  if  the  evidence  is 
sufficient,  then  we  are  bound  to  accept  the  rec- 
ord, and  if  the  evidence  is  not  sufficient,  we 
may  hold  them  in  doubt  or  may  reject  them 
as  the  case  may  be. 

The  Wide  View. 

Let  us  look  at  the  case  as  a  whole  for  a 
moment  and  then  examine  one  in  particular. 


94  Visions  and  Voices 

in  detail.  What  was  the  situation  ?  Here  was 
a  race  of  slaves  in  bondage  to  a  desperately 
wicked  and  cruel  king  and  people.  This  na- 
tion of  slaves  had  been  chosen  of  God  to  oc- 
cupy a  distinguished  place  in  human  history. 
God  wished  them  to  be  free,  not  only  because 
He  wishes  all  people  to  be  free,  though  that  is 
true,  but  because  these  were  His  chosen  people 
and  were  assigned  to  a  particular  task  and 
they  must  be  free  if  they  were  to  accomplish 
it.  Is  it  probable  that  the  bloody  ruler  of  this 
enslaved  nation  would  let  them  go  without 
some  exhibition  of  supernatural  power?  Has 
it  been  the  custom  of  kings  and  luxurious, 
lazy,  worthless  people  to  dismiss  slaves  for 
light  and  trifling  reasons?  Did  we  free  our 
slaves  in  this  manner? 

I  was  born  in  the  time  when  the  discussion 
of  American  slavery  was  ripening  for  war.  I 
lived  through  the  entire  struggle  which  ended 
in  nationalizing  freedom.  I  remember  very 
vividly  the  occurrences  of  those  days.  I  was 
astounded,  as  were  Northern  people  in  gen- 
eral, at  the  defeats  which  came  to  the  arms  of 
the  Union.  Those  defeats  continued  until  our 
President  issued  the  Proclamation  of  Emanci- 
pation, and  on  the  day  when  that  Proclamation 
was  issued  the  tide  turned.     Of  course  some 


What  Is  a  Miracle  95 

wise  men  may  say  that  if  we  had  continued 
partners  in  the  enslaving  of  the  negro  race,  the 
tide  would  have  turned  just  as  it  did.     I  have 
many  times  been  compelled  to  say  that  some 
of  my  wise  friends  can  tell  what  would  have 
happened  if  what  did  occur  had  not  taken 
place.    I  am  myself  not  so  wise.    I  know 
some  of  the  things  which  occur  and  some- 
times I  think  I  can  see  the  reasons  for  them, 
but  I  never  can  tell  what  would  have  taken 
place  if  the  events  which  have  occurred  had 
failed.     So    I    repeat    again— we   never   tri- 
umphed in  any  large  way  in  the  war  for  the 
Union  until  our  rulers  had  declared  their  pur- 
pose to  free  the  slaves.     Then  we  did  tri- 
umph, and  from  that  time  the  fate  of  the  re- 
bellion was  sealed.     Were  Pharaoh  and  the 
Egyptians  in  the  same  condition?    I  am  in- 
clined to  think  they  were,  and  if  God  had  not 
wrought   miracles   terrifying  and   confusing 
them,  they  would  never  have  consented  to  let 
His  people  go.     Of  course  some  of  my  wise 
friends  may  say.  Why  did  not  God  bring  about 
that  in  some  other  way?    For  example,  why 
did  He  not  kill  the  people  by  a  plague  ?    This 
would  have  been  easy.     He  could  have  done 
this  if  He  desired,  but  I  must  again  decline  to 
spend  time  in  considering  what  might  have 


96  Visions  and  Voices 

been.  I  set  before  myself  the  humbler  task  of 
considering  what  is  and  has  been,  and  I  repeat 
that  so  far  as  I  can  see  the  only  way  to  secure 
the  voluntary  dismissal  of  slaves  on  the  part 
of  Egypt  was  to  bring  about  such  a  series  of 
events  as  the  Word  of  God  records.  This 
would  make  all  plain.  Nothing  short  of  this, 
it  seems  to  me,  would  have  accomplished  the 
end  desired. 

Seven  Days  of  Hard  Tack. 

If  the  people  of  the  United  States  should 
this  year  decide  to  eat  unleavened  bread, 
bread  made  with  flour,  water  and  salt  without 
leaven  of  any  kind,  and  to  keep  this  up  for 
a  period  of  seven  days  and  to  make  this  an 
annual  occasion  and  should  continue  to  do  so 
for  twenty-five  or  fifty  years,  I  think  any  rea- 
sonable person  would  ask  for  an  explanation. 
Why  should  a  nation  decide  to  eat  hard  tack 
once  a  year  for  seven  days  for  a  period  of 
twenty-five  or  fifty  years  ?  I  think  the  ques- 
tion would  be  a  fair  one  and  that  every  reason- 
able student  would  say  that  some  reason  there 
must  have  been. 

Now  the  Jews  have  been  eating  hard  tack 
every  year  for  a  period  of  seven  days  for 
about  three  thousand  years.  Scattered  as  they 
f 


What  Is  a  Miracle  97 

are  throughout  the  lands  of  the  earth  every- 
where they  have  had  these  seven  days  of  un- 
leavened bread.  When  you  ask  them  why 
they  eat  this  unleavened  bread  every  year, 
they  say  that  it  is  because  when  their  fathers 
were  coming  out  of  Egypt  about  fourteen 
hundred  years  before  Christ  they  came  out  by 
night  in  haste  and  that  for  a  time  they  had  to 
use  bread  of  this  kind,  and  they  declare  that 
God  taught  them  to  keep  up  this  fast  of  un- 
leavened bread,  this  seven  days  of  hard  tack, 
in  order  that  they  might  not  forget  the  great 
events  through  which  they  passed  during  those 
days  of  deliverance.  Now  a  national  custom 
like  this  is  a  tremendous  monument.  The 
base  of  this  monument  is  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
Wherever  you  find  a  Jewish  family  living  ac- 
cording to  Jewish  law,  you  find  the  Passover 
feast,  the  days  of  unleavened  bread.  If  the 
explanation  alleged  is  not  the  true  one,  what 
explanation  will  our  wise  men  substitute? 
The  fact  is  that  the  institutions  of  any  nation 
are  the  most  tremendous  comment  upon  its 
history.  The  Jews  are  no  exception  to  this 
universal  rule.  Every  synagogue  in  the  world 
is  today  bearing  testimony  to  the  miracles 
wrought  in  Egypt.  It  was  a  sufficient  reason 
for  them.    God  was  well  able  to  cause  them. 


98  Visions  and  Voices 

The  Bible  says  He  did  cause  them.  No  ra- 
tional person  has  any  reason  to  doubt  this 
testimony  of  the  Word  of  God. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

IS  THE  AGE  OF  MIRACLES  PAST? 

I  do  not  know  how  many  times  in  my  life  I 
have  heard  men  and  women,  sometimes  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  ministers  who  are  called  to 
preach  the  Word,  make  the  remark  above  in- 
dicated. When  I  hear  people  say  this,  I  like 
to  ask  them  how  they  know  the  age  of  miracles 
is  past.  The  Bible  does  not  say  that  the  age 
of  miracles  ever  will  be  past.  In  fact  there 
are  intimations  that  the  age  of  miracles  will 
not  pass.  The  commission  of  the  disciples 
as  they  went  out  to  organize  the  church, 
to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  King,  seemed  to 
indicate  the  possibility  of  miracles  continuing. 
Of  course  I  know  that  the  last  chapter  of 
Mark  is  questioned,  but  apart  from  that  there 
are  intimations  of  the  continuance  of  the  su- 
pernatural power  in  the  church.  Take  for  ex- 
ample the  conversion  of  sinners.  Which  is 
the  greater  miracle,  to  reanimate  a  dead  body 
or  to  reanimate  a  dead  soul  ?  We  do  not  call 
conversion  a  miracle  because  we  see  it  so  fre- 
quently, but  is  it  therefore  not  fairly  con- 


loo  Visions  and  Voices 

sidered  one?  I  am  not  speaking  of  the  re- 
sults of  Christian  living  which  come  to  well- 
bred  people  who  have  never  been  in  open  sin, 
of  the  quiet  coming  into  faith  of  the  people 
who  have  no  stormy  passions  and  who  have 
never  really  felt  the  grip  of  evil  spirits  on  their 
souls.  I  am  talking  about  the  other  sort  of 
folks  who  have  to  "resist  to  blood,  striving 
against  sin,"  people  assailed  by  the  demons  of 
licentiousness,  of  drink,  of  gambling,  of  drugs 
or  of  idleness.  Whether  my  readers  have 
ever  battled  with  these  evil  spirits  or  not,  there 
are  plenty  of  people  who  have,  and  I  think 
that  one  who  knows  the  frightful  power  which 
these  legions  of  darkness  possess  will  believe 
that  to  be  saved  and  kept  from  uncleanness  so 
that  the  soul  may  feel  white  in  the  presence 
of  God  is  quite  as  much  a  work  of  super- 
natural power  as  that  of  quickening  dead  eyes 
so  that  they  can  see,  of  dead  ears  so  that  they 
can  hear,  of  dead  tongues  so  that  they  can 
speak,  or  of  a  dead  body  so  that  it  might 
rise  up  and  go  its  way. 

I  know,  however,  that  those  who  have  not 
experienced  the  frightful  power  of  the  de- 
mons will  be  unable  to  comprehend  this  argu- 
ment. All  those  who  have  had  this  test  and 
victory  will  know  precisely  what  I  am  talking 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past         loi 

about  and  I  think  they  will,  most  of  them, 
agree  with  me  in  opinion.  I  do  not,  however, 
intend  to  beg  the  question  nor  to  say  that 
people  who  cannot  appreciate  this  argument 
have  not  a  right  to  an  answer  to  their  ques- 
tion. Is  the  age  of  miracles  ended?  I  remind 
them,  however,  that  in  the  days  of  our  Lord 
precisely  the  same  difficulty  occurred.  There 
were  folks  who  could  not  understand  about  the 
forgiveness  of  sin  but  who  could  realize  what 
it  meant  to  see  a  paralytic  take  up  his  bed  and 
go  home,  and  Jesus  says  expressly  on  one 
occasion  that  He  worked  this  physical  miracle 
that  they  might  know  that  He  had  power  to 
work  the  spiritual  wonder.  "That  ye  may 
know  that  the  Son  of  man  hath  power  on 
earth  to  forgive  sins,  he  saith  to  the  sick  of 
the  palsy"  (Mark  2:10).  This  shows  that  at 
that  time  men  thought  it  a  great  miracle  to  see 
a  palsied  man  walking  away  with  his  bed 
on  his  shoulder  but  thought  it  to  be  not  at  all 
a  sure  thing  if  Jesus  said  to  a  poor,  sin-smitten 
soul,  "Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee,"  and  Jesus 
undertook  to  meet  their  difficulty.  He  said, 
"That  ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of  man  hath 
power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins,  he  saith  to 
the  sick  of  the  palsy."  He  wrought  the  out- 
ward miracle  which  the  poor  blinded  people 


I02  Visions  and  Voices 

about  Him  could  see  and  understand,  that 
they  might  beHeve  that  the  greater  miracle 
was  wrought. 

Is  THE  Age  of  Miracles  Past? 

I  put  the  question  again  because  I  wish  all 
my  readers  to  know  that  I  intend  tQ  deal 
honestly  with  it,  and  while  everything  which 
I  have  said  on  the  subject  is  true  and  weighty, 
I  will  not,  even  to  those  who  cannot  compre- 
hend it,  seem  to  avoid  the  issue. 

Does  God  in  our  day  interfere  with  what 
might  be  called  His  ordinary  methods  of  ad- 
ministration for  the  purpose  of  relieving  the 
suffering,  removing  perplexity  or  accomplish- 
ing any  other  good  end  for  His  people  ?  This 
is  the  question.  Let  me  now  ask  you  to  read 
again  chapter  seven  throughout  and  to  ques- 
tion whether  there  is  anything  in  it  which  you 
cannot  see  to  be  surely  true.  If  you  agree 
that  what  is  written  in  the  last  chapter  is  a 
statement  of  fact,  then  you  will  admit  that 
God  can  work  miracles  if  He  chooses,  that 
God  will  work  miracles  if  it  is  best,  that  of 
their  necessity  He  will  be  the  judge  and  that 
the  question  whether  or  not  He  has  thus  in- 
terfered for  the  help  of  His  children  is  a  ques- 
tion of  fact  to  be  determined  by  testimony. 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past        103 

All  the  rules  of  evidence,  of  course,  are  to  be 
observed.  The  character  of  the  witness,  his 
competence,  anything  which  is  fairly  asked 
for  in  a  court  of  justice,  may  reasonably  be 
required  here.  The  testimony  of  hysterical, 
half-crazed  individuals  of  course  is  to  be  re- 
jected, or,  if  it  is  received  at  all,  received  be- 
cause of  corroboration  and  not  because  of 
the  character  of  the  witness. 

If,  for  example,  a  man  or  a  woman  says 
that  body  and  mind  having  been  destroyed  by 
narcotic  stimulants,  he  or  she  on  a  certain  oc- 
casion had  dealings  with  God;  that  in  the 
course  of  the  transaction  God  touched  his  or 
her  body,  that  the  appetite  which  had  been  a 
cruel  tyrant  was  suddenly  broken,  that  the 
nerves  which  had  been  frazzled  and  worn  were 
still  and  quiet,  and  that  for  a  term  of  years,  say 
two  years,  or  five,  or  ten,  or  forty,  the  former 
victim  had  been  clothed  and  in  his  or  her  right 
mind,  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  rejoicing  in 
His  saving  and  keeping  power.  Suppose  half 
a  dozen  or  a  dozen  friends,  one  or  two 
physicians,  perhaps  a  jail-keeper  or  two,  de- 
clare themselves  to  have  know  this  person, 
to  have  been  acquainted  with  him  or  her  dur- 
ing the  period  of  the  evil  demon's  control,  to 
have  known  the  person  directly  after  he  or 


104  Visions  and  Voices 

she  had  dealings  with  God  on  the  subject; 
supposing  that  these  people  testified  that  to 
outward  appearance  the  change  which  is  al- 
leged by  the  individual  actually  took  place, 
that  the  man  or  woman  who  had  been  unable 
to  do  without  the  gratification  of  base  appe- 
tites had  suddenly  become  a  self-controlled, 
happy  person.  Suppose  they  declare  that 
there  seemed  to  be  physical  changes,  that  the 
eyes  became  clear  and  quiet,  that  the  move- 
ments were  regular  and  rational,  that  labor 
which  had  been  impossible  for  years  was 
faithfully  and  efficiently  performed,  so  that  a 
person  who  had  been  a  helpless  victim,  nay,  a 
menace  to  society,  had  come  to  be  a  useful 
and  worthy  member  of  it.  On  what  ground 
is  this  testimony  to  be  rejected?  If  these 
people  should  be  sworn  in  court  and  should 
declare  that  they  had  seen  and  known  cer- 
tain events  to  take  place  that  they  knew 
personally  had  occurred,  their  testimony 
would  be  accepted.  Of  course  there  is  no 
rational  reason  for  rejecting  the  testimony  of 
these  persons  in  regard  to  the  character  and 
deliverance  of  the  individual  who  is  furnish- 
ing testimony  to  the  honor  of  Jesus.  The 
question  is  as  to  its  miraculous  character. 
There  is  no  reasonable  basis  for  rejecting  the 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past        105 

testimony  in  itself.  Is  this  a  miracle  or  not? 
If  it  is  a  miracle,  certainly  the  age  of  miracles 
is  not  past,  for  there  are  scores,  yes,  hundreds 
of  men  and  women,  who  will  furnish  testi- 
mony substantially  like  the  above,  and  there 
are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  people  who 
will  corroborate  what  they  say.  If  this  story 
were  found  in  the  New  Testament,  the  un- 
believer would  question  it.  He  would  say 
that  it  required  time  to  get  the  victory  over 
evil  passions,  that  nerves  which  had  been  de- 
stroyed through  years  of  abuse  could  not  be 
in  a  moment  made  normal,  that  wills  which 
had  been  enfeebled  by  years  of  evil  living 
could  not  be  in  an  instant  restored  to  strength 
and  vigor.  All  people  would  admit  that  God's 
ordinary  method  is  to  work  more  slowly  than 
in  the  ways  supposed,  but  all  reasonable 
people  would  also  admit  that  if  the  evidence 
was  sufficient  for  an  exception  to  the  rule  it 
ought  to  be  received,  and  that  the  age  of 
miracles,  if  you  call  this  a  miracle,  is  not  past. 

Take  the  Case  of  Sickness. 

Let  a  man  or  woman  tell  us  that  he  or  she 
had  for  years  been  suffering  under  consump- 
tion, that  a  dozen  physicians  have  declared 
that  one  lung  is  entirely  gone  and  that  the 


io6  Visions  and  Voices 

other  lung  is  so  seriously  affected  that  there 
is  reason  to  anticipate  death  at  any  time,  that 
there  is  no  reason  to  anticipate  a  recovery  to 
health  and  strength.  Suppose  these  physi- 
cians are  living  men  whose  testimony  is  se- 
cured and  they  confirm  what  the  sick  man 
says.  Suppose  this  man  to  go  forward  and 
relate  that  on  a  certain  occasion  God  spoke 
to  him,  it  matters  not  how,  in  some  way, 
through  a  sermon,  through  a  portion  of  the 
Bible,  in  the  prayer  of  a  friend — the  manner 
is  immaterial.  He  says  that  whereas  he  had 
been  coughing,  had  had  hectic  flushes  in  his 
cheeks,  had  had  sharp  pains  passing  through 
his  lung  or  lungs,  had  been  throwing  off  large 
quantities  of  sputum  indescribably  foul  and 
offensive,  and  supposing  that  he  proceeds  fur- 
ther to  say  that  on  this  occasion  when  God 
spoke  to  him  and  he  spoke  back  to  God,  God 
said  to  him,  If  I  make  you  well,  what  will  you 
do  ?  And  supposing  he  said  he  promised  Him 
that  he  would  give  without  reservation  to  His 
service  the  new  life  that  He  should  bestow. 
Supposing  he  says  that  God  said  to  him,  "Will 
you  make  your  boast  of  Me,  will  you  tell  people 
what  I  have  done,  and  will  you  encourage 
other  afflicted  folk  to  come  to  Me  for  help" ; 
and  he  said,  "Lord,  I  will."    Suppose  he  pro- 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past       107 

ceeds  to  say  that  a  strange  and  wonderful 
power  seemed  to  affect  his  body,  that  some- 
thing seemed  to  pass  over  him,  through  him, 
burning  up  waste  tissues,  removing  difficulties 
of  one  kind  and  another  and  that  in  an  hour 
he  was  healed.  Suppose  he  says  that  his 
cough  passed  away,  not  gradually,  little  by 
little,  but  at  once.  Supposing  he  tells  you 
that  he  began  to  breathe  deeply  with  comfort 
and  satisfaction.  Supposing  he  says  that 
night  sweats  passed,  that  his  cheeks  became 
normal  in  color,  that  his  strength  returned  so 
that  he  could  walk  or  run  or  labor  without 
difficulty ;  and  supposing  that  the  doctors  who 
testified  that  he  had  been  a  hopeless  consump- 
tive testified  that  they  had  seen  him  since  this 
alleged  recovery  and  that,  so  far  as  they  know, 
what  he  says  is  true.  Suppose  his  friends, 
his  wife  or  children  or  brothers  or  sisters 
do  the  same.  On  what  ground  is  this  testi- 
mony to  be  rejected,  allowing  that  the  people 
are  persons  of  good  character  whose  testi- 
mony would  be  accepted  in  a  court  of  justice  ? 
I  do  not  see  how  this  testimony  can  be  re- 
jected by  rational,  fair-minded  persons,  and  if 
it  is  accepted,  what  shall  we  say  to  the  ques- 
tion, Is  the  age  of  miracles  past?  Certainly 
if  a  case  of  this  kind  were  recorded  in  the 


io8  Visions  and  Voices 

New  Testament,  people  would  say  that  it  was 
miraculous.  Objectors  to  the  supernatural 
would  say  that  they  did  not  believe  it  to  be 
true.  What  will  they  say  when  the  person 
stands  before  them  with  witnesses  to  prove 
that  what  he  has  said  is  so  ? 

I  remember  when  Jenny  Smith  stood  on 
our  platform  at  the  college  for  an  hour  and 
told  the  students  and  teachers  assembled  how 
for  sixteen  years  she  had  been  unable  to  walk 
or  sit  erect.  She  told  them  that  over  thirty 
physicians  diagnosed  her  case  and  declared 
that  she  was  to  be  a  life-long  invalid,  that  she 
had  nothing  to  do  but  suffer.  She  told  us 
how  in  those  days  she  was  carried  on  a  cot 
from  church  to  church,  from  conference  to 
conference,  bearing  testimony  as  an  invalid  to 
the  sustaining  grace  of  God.  She  told  us  that 
in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  in  a  hospital  her 
sister,  sixteen  years  of  age,  was  with  her  who 
had  never  seen  her  sit  erect  or  stand  upon 
her  feet.  She  sent  out  invitations  to  friends 
to  come  and  pray  with  her  for  her  recovery. 
She  told  us  how  after  the  invitations  had  been 
sent  to  the  office  she  felt  she  had  been  pre- 
sumptuous, that  it  was  not  God's  will  to  make 
her  well,  and  sent  her  sister  to  the  office  to  see 
if  the  letters  had  gone  that  she  might  recall 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past        109 

them  if  they  were  yet  at  the  office.  The  let- 
ters had  gone  and  her  friends  came,  about 
twenty  of  them.  They  prayed  with  her  and 
for  her  and  she  lay  still  on  the  cot  helpless 
as  she  had  been  for  sixteen  years.  She  told 
us  how  at  this  time  a  minister  rose,  saying 
that  he  had  another  engagement  and  must  be 
excused,  and  she  said,  "That  is  quite  right, 
brother,  I  do  not  wish  to  keep  you  or  anyone 
who  wants  to  go;  but  if  any  of  you  can  tarry 
with  me  I  should  be  glad  to  have  you  do  so, 
for^  I  believe  it  is  God's  purpose  to  heal  me 
tonight."  She  said  that  he  came  and  stood 
by  her  cot  and  said  to  her,  "Sister  Jenny,  you 
are  rebelling  against  God.  You  have  preached 
better  sermons  from  this  sick  bed  and  greater 
sermons  than  we  ministers  are  able  to  preach 
from  our  pulpits;  you  ought  to  be  happy  to 
go  on  thus  serving  and  rejoicing  in  God." 
She  said  she  replied  to  him,  "Brother,  you  do 
not  understand  me  at  all.  There  were  years 
when  I  did  rebel  against  the  providence  of 
God,  when  I  wanted  to  be  well  so  greatly  that 
it  seemed  I  would  like  to  be  well  even  if  God 
did  not  wish  it.  But  that  is  all  passed.  lam 
just  as  willing  to  die  as  live,  and  I  am  a«. 
wilhng  to  live  sick  as  well.  I  am  absolutely 
contented  with  whatever  God  wills,  but  I  be- 


no  Visions  and  Voices 

lieve  it  is  His  purpose  to  heal  me  tonight. 
You  go  on  about  your  work  and  let  all  the  rest 
go  who  wish  to  go,  but  if  any  can  tarry  I  shall 
be  glad  of  their  help."  She  said  about  one- 
half  the  number  present  went  away,  the  other 
half  remaining ;  that  they  sat  there  quietly,  oc- 
casionally repeating  a  verse  of  Scripture,  sing- 
ing in  soft  tones  a  verse  of  a  hymn,  one  and 
another  offering  prayer.  She  said  that  about 
eleven  o'clock  she  felt  power  coming  into  her 
back  and  arms,  and  putting  her  hands  down 
on  the  sides  of  her  cot,  she  rose  to  a  sitting 
position.  Her  physician,  one  of  those  who 
had  remained  with  her,  ran  to  her,  and  lower- 
ing the  foot-board  of  her  cot,  brought  her  feet 
near  the  floor.  She  rose  and,  unaided,  walked 
across  the  room  to  a  chair  and  sat  down  prais- 
ing God.  Her  sister  went  to  the  heater  and 
took  a  bowl  of  milk  which  had  been  warming 
for  her  and  brought  it  to  her,  which  she  drank 
with  great  satisfaction.  After  a  time  she 
walked,  still  unaided,  back  to  the  cot  and  slept 
through  the  night.  On  the  morrow  she  arose, 
was  dressed  and  began  to  walk  about  the  world 
to  which  she  had  been  so  largely  dead  for 
sixteen  years.  I  suppose  there  must  have 
been  a  hundred  thousand  people  at  least  who 
had  seen  her  carried  about  on  her  cot,  seen 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past       iii 

her  loaded  into  express  or  baggage  cars  year 
after  year^  as  she  did  all  her  traveling  in  that 
way.  I  am  repeating  the  story  from  memory 
and  I  do  not  profess  to  be  accurate  in  every 
detail,  but  the  substance  of  her  narrative  is 
as  recorded.  I  think  she  still  lives,  and  if 
so,  she  can  correct  any  failure  of  memory 
caused  by  the  lapse  of  time.  The  substance 
is  as  she  gave  it  and  the  witnesses  are  not 
numbered  by  ones  and  twos  but  by  hundreds 
and  thousands. 

If  my  reader  had  found  this  story  in  the 
book  of  Matthew  or  John,  he  would  have  at 
once  said.  Here  is  a  miracle  wrought  by  the 
power  of  Jesus,  and  would  have  thanked  God 
Who  had  given  such  power  to  man.  The  un- 
believer would  have  said  it  was  all  a  lie,  the 
writer  became  enthusiastic  and  wrote  that  he 
saw  what  he  did  not  see,  or  in  some  way  or 
other  would  have  explained  away  a  fact  which 
may  be  received  and  believed,  but  which  does 
not  require  to  be  explained.  This  is  not  some- 
thing which  happened  in  the  year  one  or  in  the 
year  thirty  or  in  the  year  fifty.  It  is  an  event 
of  our  own  time  and  it  is  as  well  substantiated 
as  thousands  of  cases  which  are  decided  in 
our  courts  every  year.  If  one  objects  to  Bible 
miracles,  why  should  he  not  object  to  this  one 


112  Visions  and  Voices 

which  is  not  a  Bible  miracle  but  a  modern 
miracle  wrought  by  the  same  power  which 
healed  and  saved  so  many  years  ago? 

In  my  little  book  on  "Getting  Things  from 
God"  I  have  spoken  of  my  friend  who  told 
his  story  in  the  Eighth  Avenue  Mission,  New 
York.  I  never  saw  him  anywhere  except  in 
the  mission,  and  I  have  never  confirmed  his 
story  by  the  testimony  of  other  witnesses,  but 
he  seemed  to  be  an  absolutely  truthful  man. 
My  impression  is  that  his  testimony  to  matters 
of  fact  would  have  been  accepted  in  any  court 
in  the  world.  Those  who  have  read  "Get- 
ting Things  from  God"  will  remember  how 
his  physician  in  the  hospital  said  he  was  dead, 
how  his  wife  insisted  that  she  had  had  a 
promise  from  God  that  he  should  be  saved, 
and  that  he  could  not  die  until  this  promise 
was  fulfilled.  You  will  remember  that  the 
doctor  replied,  "I  do  not  know  anything  about 
that  but  I  know  he  is  dead.  I  am  very  sorry 
for  you  but  he  is  dead."  He  summoned 
physicians  to  the  number  of  seven,  all  saying 
that  he  was  dead,  and  then  withdrew  leaving 
her  on  her  knees  by  the  side  of  the  cot  while 
the  screen  which  they  put  between  the  living 
and  the  dead  in  those  wards  was  drawn  about 
them.    He  said  that  his  wife  asked  for  a  pil- 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past  113 

low  because  the  floor  hurt  her  knees ;  that  the 
nurse  brought  her  one  and  that  she  remained 
kneeling  on  that  pillow  by  the  side  of  his  cot 
thirteen  hours;  that  then  he  opened  his  eyes 
and  she  said  to  him,  "My  dear,  what  do  you 
want  ?''  And  he  replied,  "I  want  to  go  home." 
And  she  said,  ''You  shall  go  home."  The  doc- 
tors who  had  declared  him  to  be  a  corpse 
made  a  great  objection.  They  said  it  was 
murder  for  her  to  take  a  man  in  his  condition 
away  from  the  hospital,  but  she  said,  "You  all 
said  he  was  dead.  I  do  not  see  how  you  can 
kill  a  dead  man.  I  am  going  to  take  him 
home."  This  man  sat  by  my  side  for  per- 
haps an  hour.  When  he  told  this  story  he 
was  standing  within  six  or  eight  feet  of  me. 
What  would  my  friend  who  objects  to  the 
supernatural  events  recorded  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment or  in  the  New  Testament  say  if  he  had 
found  this  story  there?  Of  course  he  would 
have  explained  it — away.  He  would  have  said 
there  was  some  reason  for  believing  that  the 
man  was  not  dead,  that  life  was  suspended 
for  a  bit,  but  that  all  the  while  he  was  alive 
and  liable  to  get  up  and  go  about  his  work. 
I  do  not  say  that  the  man  was  dead.  It  was 
the  seven  doctors  who  said  that.  I  say  that 
he  was  apparently  dead,  that  the  doctors  de- 


114  Visions  and  Voices 

clared  he  was  dead,  that  his  wife  held  on  to 
the  promises  of  God,  and  that  as  she  prayed 
God  gave  him  power  and  she  took  him  home. 
When  he  was  lying  on  the  cot  in  the  hospital 
he  said  he  weighed  about  one  hundred  pounds. 
That  night  as  he  was  talking  in  the  Eighth 
Avenue  Mission  he  said  he  weighed  two  hun- 
dred and  forty-six  pounds.  He  looked  the 
part.  He  was  an  engineer  on  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad,  running,  he  said,  a  fast  line 
train  from  Harrisburg  to  Philadelphia.  Is  the 
age  of  miracles  past  ?  Certainly  the  age  when 
God  can  work  miracles  is  not  past,  nor  is  the 
age  when  He  will  work  them,  if  there  be  suf- 
ficient reason,  past.  In  every  case  of  this  kind 
the  whole  question  is  one  of  evidence.  No- 
body is  required  to  believe  without  evidence. 
God  never  asks  anybody  to  believe  anything 
without  a  reason,  but  He  does  require  men 
to  believe  what  there  is  reason  to  believe. 

In  the  same  book  of  which  I  have  spoken 
I  mention  God's  dealings  with  me  in  regard  to 
the  raising  up  of  the  sick.  I  have  seen  it 
done  repeatedly  when  physicians  declared  that 
there  was  nothing  before  the  sick  one  but 
death.  In  one  instance  the  friends  had  been 
brought  home  to  see  their  mother  die  and 
had  sat  about  for  days  waiting  for  her  to 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past  115 

die.  Her  husband  came  over  to  my  office  to 
get  me  to  pray  for  her,  and  I  went,  and  she 
Hved  to  bury  that  husband  after  some  years. 
I  saw,  as  those  who  have  read  "Getting 
Things  from  God"  will  remember,  a  child  with 
supposedly  no  chance  for  living.  God  raised 
up  the  child.  He  has  been  running  about 
my  yard  lately.  No  one  would  have  given  a 
penny  for  his  life  that  morning  when  we 
prayed  for  him  as  he  lay  on  the  pillow  on  the 
lap  of  a  kind  neighbor.  I  have  mentioned  a  few 
instances,  only  a  few.  There  are  plenty  more, 
which  might  be  recorded,  instances  in  home 
lands,  instances  in  heathen  lands,  the  healings 
of  sick  people  and  the  casting  out  of  demons. 
I  will  not  say  that  God  does  not  at  times  raise 
the  dead  even  in  our  day.  I  have  never 
known  an  instance  which  I  considered  unques- 
tionable, but  I  have  seen  what  came  so  near 
to  it  that  to  me  there  was  little  practical  dif- 
ference. 

Why  Not  Oftener? 

I  have  no  doubt  some  good  man  will  say. 
Well,  if  God  can  and  will  and  does  step  out- 
side the  ordinary  course  of  nature  in  our  time, 
why  does  He  not  help  other  people?  There 
are  many  people  who  would  like  to  be  helped. 


Ii6  Visions  and  Voices 

Why  does  He  not  heal  them,  deliver  them? 
And  I  answer  that  there  were  many  people  in 
the  time  of  Christ  who  were  not  helped.  There 
were  many  lepers  in  Israel  at  the  time  of 
Elisha  the  prophet,  but  only  Naaman  was 
healed.  So  far  as  we  know  Naaman  was  the 
only  one  who  went  to  Elisha.  Naaman  came 
near  losing  his  healing  because  when  the 
prophet  told  him  what  to  do  he  went  away  in 
a  rage.  If  he  had  not  happened  to  have  a 
servant  there  who  had  some  sense,  he  would 
have  rotted  to  pieces  as  a  leper.  As  it  was, 
when  he  dipped  in  Jordan  the  seventh  time 
his  flesh  came  again  to  him  like  the  flesh  of  a 
little  child. 

The  trouble  with  people  in  our  day  is  like 
the  trouble  with  the  people  in  that  day.  We 
are  too  smart,  we  are  too  full  of  the  world, 
we  are  too  much  filled  up  with  the  thought  of 
men.  We  do  not  ask  what  God  has  said, 
what  God  thinks  or  will  or  can  do.  We  ask 
what  people  say,  what  people  think,  what 
people  will  do,  and  we  ought  to  be  ashamed. 
If  we  could  get  ashamed  and  could  cease  from 
our  dishonoring  unbelief,  God  could  do  a 
thousand  things  for  us  which  He  would  like 
to  do  but  which  He  now  cannot  do  because  of 
our  unbelief.     He  does  not  offer  prizes  to  lazi- 


Is  the  Age  of  Miracles  Past  117 

ness.  He  does  not  offer  prizes  to  earthliness. 
His  rewards  are  for  those  who  can  see  His 
face,  can  hear  His  voice,  and  are  willing  to 
obey.  For  people  like  this  the  age  of  mir- 
acles never  passes. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  MAN  CHRIST  JESUS. 

The  Holy  Spirit  says  in  I  Timothy  2 :5,  "For 
there  is  one  God,  one  mediator  between  God 
and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus."  The  same 
Spirit  in  Isaiah  9 :6  says,  "For  unto  us  a  child 
is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given,  and  the  gov- 
ernment shall  be  upon  his  shoulder;  and  his 
name  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor, 
The  mighty  God,  The  everlasting  Father,  The 
Prince  of  Peace."  The  same  Spirit  says  in 
Hebrews  i  :8,  "But  unto  the  Son  he  saith,  Thy 
throne,  O  God,  is  forever  and  ever,  a  scepter 
of  righteousness  is  the  scepter  of  thy  king- 
dom." In  these  scriptures  we  have  clearly 
set  forth  the  dual  nature  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  He  was  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  and 
He  also  was  the  everlasting  Father,  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  I  am  going  to  speak  of  His 
testimony  to  the  Bible. 

Some  years  ago  I  was  on  the  examining 
committee  of  what  is  now  called  a  conference, 
when  a  young  man  was  before  us  asking  ap- 
probation as  a  preacher.    He  was  from  one 


The  Man  Christ  Jesus  119 

of  our  wealthy  universities  where  there  is  a 
great  affectation  of  learning,  where  there  is 
really  a  great  deal  of  learning,  such  as  it  is. 
I  said  to  him  in  the  examination,  "If  you  be- 
lieved that  Jesus  Christ  actually  said  that 
Moses  wrote  of  Him,  and  your  professors 
should  tell  you  that  Moses  never  wrote  any- 
thing of  Jesus  Christ,  which  would  you  be- 
lieve?" He  replied,  "1  suppose  there  are 
many  sorts  of  information  available  at  the 
present  time  which  were  not  at  command 
when  our  Lord  was  living."  In  other  words 
he  believed  that  a  professor  in  one  of  our  col- 
leges or  universities  knew  more  about  the 
writers  of  the  Bible  than  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
who  came  down  from  heaven  to  die  for  the 
sins  of  man.  He  was  apparently  a  young  man 
of  high  character.  He  had  been  a  high  school 
teacher  at  the  salary  of  twelve  hundred  dol- 
lars a  year.  He  was  just  leaving  his  work  as 
a  teacher  to  accept  the  pastorate  of  a  little 
church  where  they  were  to  pay  him  six  hun- 
dred dollars  per  annum.  As  I  looked  upon 
him  I  loved  him  and  I  marveled  at  what  he 
said.  I  did  not  blame  him;  I  blamed  his 
teachers ;  I  blame  them  now.  I  believe  if  that 
entire  institution  could  be  sunk  in  the  middle 
of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  it  would  be  a  vast  bene- 


120  Visions  and  Voices 

fit  to  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  sons  of 
men. 

Of  course,  to  a  person  in  this  state  of  mind, 
it  makes  no  difference  what  Jesus  said  or 
thought  about  the  Bible.  He  believes  that 
Jesus  was  ignorant  and  therefore  he  does  not 
accept  his  testimony ;  but  Christian  people  still 
believe  that  Jesus  Christ  knew  at  least  as 
much  as  an  ordinary  professor,  and  they  ac- 
cept His  testimony  as  decisive  in  regard  to 
matters  on  which  He  spoke.  I  trust  that  there 
are  very  few  among  my  readers  who  will 
have  come  into  the  unfortunate  condition  at 
which  the  young  man  had  arrived,  and  I  there- 
fore mention  to  them  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in 
regard  to  the  Word  of  God,  with  the  confi- 
dent expectation  that  when  they  reflect  upon 
what  Jesus  said  respecting  the  Bible  it  will  be 
the  end  of  the  controversy. 

In  the  first  place  I  remind  you  that  the  only 
Bible  which  Jesus  ever  saw  was  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. I  remind  you  that  He  never  saw  this  in 
printed  form ;  that  possibly,  yes,  probably.  He 
never  saw  it  in  collected  form ;  that  the  sacred 
books  in  His  day  were  in  rolls.  There  was 
the  roll  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  there  was  the 
roll  of  Moses,  and  from  these  priceless  treas- 
ures He  drank  deep  as  a  mere  child.     Fortu- 


The  Man  Christ  Jesus  121 

nately  we  know  that  the  Old  Testament  which 
He  possessed  was  substantially  the  one  which 
we  have  in  our  hands  today.  About  three 
hundred  years  before  He  was  born  this  Old 
Testament  had  been  made  into  Greek  by  learn- 
ed men  in  the  city  of  Alexandria,  Egypt. 
Both  these  books,  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek, 
were  accessible  in  His  time.  He  knew  about 
them.  His  wondering  admirers  said,  "How 
doth  this  man  know  letters,  never  having 
learned?"  (John  7:15).  That  is  to  say,  He 
had  never  been  a  pupil  in  the  schools,  yet  He 
learned  letters  so  that  in  the  synagogue  at 
Capernaum  he  stood  up  to  read  and  sat  down 
to  teach.  This,  I  say,  was  the  only  Bible 
which  He  knew.  The  New  Testament,  which 
was  to  give  clear  revelation  of  that  which  the 
prophets  had  taught  in  symbol  and  type,  was 
not  begun  until  He  had  ended  His  mission  on 
earth.  We  have  therefore  to  consider  His 
testimony  as  to  the  facts.  What  did  He  say 
about  the  Bible  that  He  had?  Did  He  say 
anything  about  the  Bible  that  was  to  be?  If 
He  did  speak  of  the  New  Testament,  what  did 
He  say? 

The  Old  Testament  a  Battle  Ground. 
It  is  well  understood  by  all  Bible  students 


122  Visions  and  Voices 

that  the  Old  Testament,  which  has  for  years 
been  the  football  of  these  alleged  scholars, 
was  the  Bible  which  our  Lord  had.  When  we 
hear  Him  speak  about  the  Scriptures,  we  are 
to  remember  that  He  was  talking  about  the 
Old  Testament.  They  were  the  only  Scrip- 
tures of  which  He  had  knowledge.  If  we 
can  learn  what  He  thought  about  them,  how 
He  treated  them,  we  can  learn  how  those  who 
love  Him  and  revere  Him  as  the  Saviour  of 
the  world  will  also  think  about  and  speak 
about  the  Old  Testament  in  our  day.  Let  us 
then  reflect  on  a  few  facts  relating  to  our 
Lord's  relation  to  the  Old  Testament,  to  the 
Scriptures  of  His  time.  And  first  let  us  re- 
member that  He  not  only  knew  them  but  used 
them  repeatedly.  He  quoted  them  to  His  dis- 
ciples. He  quoted  them  to  His  enemies,  He 
quoted  them  to  the  Devil  when  he  assailed 
Him  in  the  wilderness  of  Judea.  As  we  ex- 
amine these  quotations,  it  is  apparent  that 
Jesus  Christ  believed  the  Old  Testament  to 
be  the  Word  of  God,  an  authority  for  man. 
"It  is  written,"  "It  is  written,"  "It  is  written," 
He  said  to  Satan,  and  at  each  thrust  of  this 
mighty  sword  Satan  drew  back.  When  He 
wished  to  modify  the  teaching  of  the  Book, 
He  modified  it,  not  to  make  it  less  important. 


The  Man  Christ  Jesus  123 

but  to  make  it  more  so.  "Ye  have  heard  that 
it  hath  been  said  by  them  of  old  time,  but  I 
say  unto  you."  Probably  He  was  in  most,  if 
not  all,  instances  speaking  of  the  commen- 
taries of  the  Word  rather  than  of  the  Word 
itself ;  but  no  matter  which  was  His  purpose, 
He  intensified  and  extended  the  law.  He  did 
not  abrogate  it,  as  He  Himself  said,  "I  did 
not  come  to  destroy  it  but  to  fulfil  it."  And  it 
was  Jesus  Himself  who  said,  "Heaven  and 
earth  shall  pass  away  but  my  Word  shall  not 
pass  away."  Whether  our  critical  friends  are 
right  in  their  supposition  that  it  will  sometime 
pass  away  or  not,  they  will  have  to  admit  that 
up  to  date  it  has  not  passed  away,  that  up  to 
this  time  it  has  fulfilled  His  word  concerning 
it.  Heaven  and  earth  have  not  passed  away. 
They  will ;  but  up  to  now  the  Word  of  Jesus 
has  not  passed  away. 

It  should  also  be  admitted  that  throughout 
His  entire  recorded  teaching  He  never  in  any 
instance  spoke  of  this  Word  slightingly  or 
with  contempt.  An  unfortunate  man  who  was 
for  years  a  professor  in  a  theological  seminary 
has  recently  written  an  essay  entitled  "Chris- 
tianizing the  Bible."  When  he  was  drawing 
a  salary  of  three  thousand  dollars  a  year  for 
professing   to    teach   truths    which   he    then 


124  Visions  and  Voices 

denied  and  which  he  still  denies,  people  object- 
ing to  criticisms  of  him  told  what  a  beautiful 
character  he  was,  how  lovely  he  was  in  his 
home  life,  how  delightful  to  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, and  we  had  none  of  us  any  disposition 
to  deny  the  truth  of  all  these  commendations. 
Unfortunately,  however,  his  home  relations 
were  not  the  subject  of  criticism.  He  was 
criticized  for  professing  to  teach  the  Bible, 
for  drawing  a  salary  for  doing  so  and  then  to 
the  extent  of  his  power  breakitjg  down  the  faith 
of  the  people  in  the  Book  which  he  was  paid 
to  teach.  That  was  the  point  which  was 
objected  to.  Respecting  this  matter,  there  was 
never  any  defense  made  so  far  as  I  know.  No 
one  who  knew  what  he  was  teaching  believed 
him  to  believe  the  Bible  or  to  teach  it,  yet  he 
drew  his  salary  regularly  to  the  last  hour 
and  went  away  with  the  price  of  his  treason 
in  his  pocket. 

There  was  never  a  word  in  the  teaching  of 
Yesus  Christ  from  beginning  to  end  which  cor- 
responded to  this  blasphemous  phrase,  "Chris- 
tianizing the  Bible."  Our  Lord  did  blame 
people  for  not  obeying  the  Word,  but  He 
never  blamed  the  Word  for  not  teaching  the 
people  how  to  do.  Once  more  I  must  re- 
mark that   if   people  do   not  believe  Jesus 


The  Man   Christ  Jesus  125 

Christ  knew  enough  to  form  an  intelUgent 
opinion  respecting  the  Bible,  of  course  they 
will  not  value  either  His  positive  or  negative 
testimony  in  its  favor.  But  Christians  must 
believe  that,  if  Jesus  Christ,  knowing  the 
Bible,  knowing  it  from  a  child,  using  it 
habitually  with  all  classes  of  people,  both 
friends  and  foes,  always  spoke  of  it  with  re- 
spect and  never  criticized  it  as  lacking  in  any 
particular,  this  is  a  most  certain  fact,  and  for 
a  Christian  it  seems  to  me  it  is  a  decisive  one. 
Our  Lord  not  only  quoted  the  Bible  and 
failed  to  criticize  the  Bible,  but  speaking  in 
general  terms  He  commended  it  to  His  dis- 
ciples. "Search  the  scriptures  for  in  them 
ye  think  ye  have  eternal  life:  and  they 
are  they  which  testify  of  me"  (John  5:39). 
There  is  a  question  as  to  the  translation  of 
this  verse,  but  there  is  no  question  as  to  the 
teaching  "Search  the  scriptures."  What 
scriptures?  The  writings  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, to  be  sure.  There  were  no  other  in 
His  time.  If  these  writings  were  full  of 
scientific  error,  as  men  now  blasphemously 
affirm,  why  should  Jesus  Christ,  Who  made 
the  worlds,  set  people  to  studying  this  de- 
fective or  false  account  of  the  creation  which 
He  Himself  had  made,  this  course  of  history 


126  Visions  and  Voices 

which  he  Himself  had  supervised?  From 
every  point  of  view  it  seems  to  me  a  man 
should  either  stop  calling  himself  a  Chris- 
tian or  should  stop  criticizing,  in  the  present 
reckless  and  godless  fashion,  this  Book  which 
our  Lord  Jesus  treated  with  such  respect. 
From  this  He  expounded  the  things  that  are 
written  concerning  Himself.  He  began  with 
all  the  prophets  to  do  this.  Why  cannot  His 
professed  followers  be  contented  to  do  the 
same? 

But  What  of  the  New  Testament? 

This  is  to  us  a  portion  of  the  Word  of  God, 
but  we  have  no  right  to  receive  it  without 
thought  and  examination  any  more  than  we 
have  the  Old  Testament.  Did  Jesus  say  any- 
thing about  the  New  Testament,  and,  if  He 
did,  what  did  He  say?  Over  and  again  He 
reminded  His  disciples  that  He  looked  upon 
them  as  witnesses  who  were  to  bear  testimony 
for  Him  to  the  world.  He  used  that  very  ex- 
pression. He  said,  "Ye  are  my  witnesses." 
They  were  the  men  whom  He  called  into  the 
world  to  prove  what  sort  of  a  person  He  was. 
It  is  obvious  that  their  embarrassment  would 
not  be  scantiness,  but  abundance  of  material. 
Walking  with  Him  for  years,  listening  to  Him 


The  Man   Christ  Jesus  127 

hy  day  and  by  night,  how  full  their  minds 
must  have  been  of  His  character  and  teach- 
ing. They  being  human  beings  like  us,  there 
was  reason  to  fear  that  when  they  should  un- 
dertake to  give  their  evidence  either  verbally 
or  in  writing  they  might  omit  the  important 
and  dwell  upon  the  comparatively  insignifi- 
cant. How  easy  it  would  have  been  to  have 
filled  up  the  Gospels  with  accounts  of  His 
appearance,  His  height.  His  weight,  the  color  of 
His  hair  and  eyes,  the  way  in  which  He  walked 
and  spoke.  How  wonderful  the  Gospels  are, 
considered  from  the  standpoint  of  simple  de- 
scription. Not  a  single  word  respecting  these 
trifling  things,  not  a  comment  on  His  most 
tremendous  teaching— just  the  record.  Day 
after  day,  hour  after  hour,  set  down  for  the 
teaching  of  coming  ages.  How  did  this  hap- 
pen? Jesus  tells  us  how  it  happened.  He 
says,  "When  the  Holy  Spirit  is  come,  whom  I 
will  send  unto  you  from  the  Father,  he  shall 
teach  you  all  things  and  bring  all  things  to 
your  remembrance  whatsoever  I  have  said 
unto  you,"  Here  we  have  the  secret  of  New 
^  Testament  writing.  The  Spirit  of  God  was  to 
'  bring  to  the  remembrance  of  those  witnesses 
the  things  that  Jesus  Christ  had  said.  Not 
all  the  things  that  He  had  said  or  done,  but 


128  Visions  and  Voices 

the  things  which  were  important  to  their  testi- 
mony. "He  shall  teach  you  all  things  and 
bring  all  things  to  your  remembrance  whatso- 
ever I  have  said  unto  you."  That  is,  all  things 
which  were  essential  to  the  work  in  hand. 
These  witnesses,  whom  He  thus  specially  quali- 
fied to  give  their  testimony,  began  and  con- 
tinued until  they  finished  their  courses  under 
this  supernatural  guidance. 

A  few  years  ago  the  scholars  of  two  worlds 
collated  on  a  translation  of  the  Bible.  When 
the  New  Testament  had  been  concluded  the 
books  were  eagerly  awaited  by  Bible  scholars 
on  this  side  of  the  sea.  At  last  the  precious 
volume  arrived  in  New  York,  and  a  great 
paper  in  Chicago  paid  for  having  that  book 
telegraphed  over  that  thousand  miles,  and  by 
the  time  it  was  offered  for  sale  in  the  streets 
of  New  York  it  was  printed  and  sold  by  this 
newspaper  in  the  streets  of  Chicago.  This  is 
in  itself  a  wonderful  testimony  to  the  char- 
acter of  this  wonderful  Book.  But  if  what 
has  been  said  is  true,  if  the  Holy  Spirit  was 
the  responsible  Author,  if  He  taught  those 
men  what  they  were  to  say,  if  He  brought  to 
their  remembrance  the  things  that  Jesus 
Christ  had  said,  then  all  is  understandable. 
We  are  to  add  to  this  testimony  of  Jesus  the 


The  Man   Christ  Jesus  129 

fact  that  these  witnesses  so  empowered  were 
themselves  men  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit  for 
their  daily  lives  and  work.  They  were  mir- 
acle-workers, as  we  should  expect  men  en- 
trusted with  such  a  high  and  holy  office  to  be. 
I  have  not  forgotten  Mark  and  Luke,  two 
men,  not  of  apostolic  grade,  who  became  biog- 
raphers of  our  Lord.  But  there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  the  faith  of  the  church  in  all  ages 
until  now  that  these  men  wrote  under  the 
direct  supervision  of  the  miracle-working 
apostles.  Mark  was  the  student  of  Peter  and 
Luke  the  companion  and  friend  of  Paul,  so 
that  we  have  in  the  books  which  those  two  men 
wrote  no  exception  to  the  general  plan  which 
is  stated  above.  We  accept  the  Old  Testa- 
ment on  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ.  We 
accept  the  New  Testament  on  the  authority  of 
Jesus  Christ.  He  certified  to  the  one  after 
it  was  completed.  He  certified  to  the  manner 
and  means  by  which  the  other  should  be  writ- 
ten. This  is  all  a  Christian  needs.  It  is  true 
that  fulfilled  prophecy,  the  testimony  of  mir- 
acles, the  moral  tone  of  the  Bible,  its  effect 
among  the  nations,  the  wonderful  way  in 
which  it  has  been  preserved,  all  these  are  add- 
ed evidences  which  go  to  show  that  the  faith 
of  the  church  in  this  wonderful  Book  is  well 


130  Visions  and  Voices 

founded.  Pelion  is  piled  on  Ossa.  Moun- 
tains of  proof  are  added  to  mountains  of 
proof.  The  work  is  of  such  importance — 
such  life  and  death  importance  to  a  sinful 
world,  that  God  has  not  permitted  any  nook 
or  corner  where  a  reasonable  doubt  concern- 
ing this  Book  can  creep  in.  It  is  a  more  sure 
word  of  prophecy,  more  sure  than  visions, 
more  sure  than  voices  from  heaven,  though 
visions  and  voices  are  not  to  be  despised.  But 
this  Book  is  more  certain  than  all,  and  upon  it 
the  Christian  church  has  built  her  faith. 


CHAPTER  X. 
DID  THE  PROPHETS  FORETELL? 

Years  ago,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  two 
lectures  were  placed  in  my  hands,  the  work 
of  a  Hebrew  Rabbi  of  that  city.  One  of  them 
was  entitled,  "Did  Isaiah  Prophesy  Jesus?" 
In  this  lecture  the  Hebrew  Rabbi  undertook  to 
show  that  Isaiah  said  nothing  about  Jesus. 
In  place  of  speaking  of  Jesus,  he  said  the 
prophet  was  talking  about  the  suffering  serv- 
ant, and  that  this  meant  either  the  Hebrew 
people  or  some  individual,  at  present  unknown. 

The  second  lecture  was  entitled,  "Did  the 
Other  Prophets  Prophesy  Jesus?'*  He  dealt 
with  them  in  substantially  the  same  fashion, 
saying  that  they  said  nothing  about  Jesus  but 
talked  about  other  persons. 

This  is  only  one  movement  in  the  attempt 
to  show  that  prophets  have  not  prophesied, 
that  there  has  been  no  Instance  of  foretelling 
future  events  in  any  clear  and  decisive  man- 
ner. It  is  alleged  that  where  the  prophecies 
are  somewhat  indefinite,  they  were  guesses; 
that  where  they  are  definite,  they  were  writ- 


132  Visions  and  Voices 

ten  after  the  event.     In  both  instances  the 
prophecy  is  denied. 

The  question  whether  or  not  the  fact  of  the 
foretelHng'  of  future  events  can  be  clearly 
made  out  is  an  important  one. 

The  Preaching  Work  of  the  Prophets. 

It  is  admitted  that  the  prophets  were  not  ex- 
clusively occupied  with  the  foretelling  of  fu- 
ture events.  They  were  great  preachers, 
men  who  loved  their  nation  and  who  wept 
bitter  tears  as  they  saw  her  ruin  approaching. 
They  saw  that  the  ruin  was  caused  by  sin  and 
by  sins,  and  they  insisted  that  the  nation  must 
repent  and  turn  from  sin  or  she  would  be  de- 
stroyed. From  time  to  time  they  turned  from 
the  sight  and  sins  of  their  own  people  to  the 
cruelties  and  abominations  of  the  nations 
around  them,  and  they  declared,  respecting 
these  neighbor  nations — Moab,  Philistia,  Tyre, 
Edom,  Egypt,  Assyria,  Syria,  etc. — that  they 
also  would  be  punished  for  their  sins,  and 
among  other  sins  they  mentioned  the  attitude 
which  these  heathen  nations  maintained 
toward  the  chosen  people  of  God. 

In  these  expostulations  and  exhortations, 
from  time  to  time  the  prophets  rose  from  the 
general  to  the  particular.     They  said  not  only 


Did  the  Prophets  Foretell  133 

that  evil  would  follow  a  continuance  in  wrong- 
doing but  they  set  down  particular  evils  which 
should  come  to  particular  cities,  to  countries, 
and  used  these  threatened  judgments  as  argu- 
ments to  persuade  men  to  turn  from  sin. 

Along  with  these  prophecies  of  coming 
doom  were  the  prophecies  of  coming  deliver- 
ance. If  Israel  was  to  be  punished  for  her  sins, 
God  would  not  forsake  her  in  her  suffering, 
but  would,  in  time,  grant  her  repentance 
and  relief,  and  among  these  prophecies  of 
hope  were  the  great  prophecies  concerning  the 
golden  age,  the  millennial  kingdom,  the  time 
when  the  Lord's  prayer  should  be  answered, 
when  the  millions  upon  millions  of  children 
who  have  prayed  "Thy  kingdom  come"  should 
find  the  kingdom  of  God  here. 

Fulfilled  and  Unfulfilled. 

Some  of  these  prophecies  have  unquestion- 
ably been  fulfilled.  Nobody  doubts  that 
Babylon  has  been  destroyed;  no  one  doubts 
that  Tyre  is  at  the  present  time  a  place  for 
the  spreading  of  nets;  no  one  doubts  that 
Egypt  is  today  the  basest  of  the  kingdoms; 
no  one  doubts  that  Israel  is  today  scattered 
throughout  the  nations  of  the  world;  no  one 
doubts  that  the  Jewish  name  is  now  become 


134  Visions  and  Voices 

a  hissing  and  a  by-word.  To  question  any 
of  these  facts  would  be  to  prove  oneself  hope- 
lessly ignorant. 

I  think  it  safe  to  say  that  no  one  at  present 
doubts  that  these  prophecies  respecting  the 
nations  to  which  I  have  just  referred  were 
made  before  the  event,  in  certain  instances  many 
years  before  the  event.  Those  who  say  that 
the  prophets  did  not  foretell  declare  that  these 
foretellings  are  the  result  of  a  happy  guess, 
just  as  a  man  today  might  say  that  if  Chicago 
continued  to  be  as  vile  as  she  is  she  would  be 
destroyed;  but  the  destructions  which  are 
foretold  for  these  sinning  nations  of  the  olden 
times  are  so  exceedingly  specific  in  character 
that  it  seems  that  an  honest  man  can  hardly 
accept  this  statement  of  the  case. 

The  city  of  Babylon,  for  example,  was  one 
of  the  great  cities  of  the  world.  Its  monu- 
ments and  palaces  are,  today,  mentioned 
among  the  most  celebrated  ever  known.  There 
was  no  reason,  at  the  time  when  the  prophe- 
cies were  uttered,  to  suppose  that  this  city 
would  be  wiped  out.  A  fairly  intelligent  man, 
knowing  the  rottenness  of  the  nation,  might 
easily  have  judged  that  it  would  suffer  great 
reverses,  that  it  would  become  far  less  im- 
portant than  it  was ;  but  that  is  true  of  a  score 


Did  the  Prophets  Foretell  135 

of  great  cities  which  are  in  existence  today, 
and  a  person  deahng  thus  with  probabiHties 
and  without  supernatural  guidance  might  eas- 
ily affirm  that  New  York,  or  London,  or  Paris, 
or  Pekin,  if  it  did  not  repent,  would  suffer 
loss;  but  who  would  venture  to  declare  that 
one  of  these  cities  should  be  wiped  out,  should 
never  be  rebuilt,  and,  if  he  did  undertake  to 
say  this  of  some  one  of  them,  which  one  would 
he  choose? 

Damascus  was  a  wicked  city  in  those  olden 
ages.  Damascus  deserved  to  be  punished,  was 
punished,  but  it  was  never  declared  that 
Damascus  should  cease  to  exist,  as  it  was  that 
Babylon  and  Tyre  should  be  removed  from 
the  map.  Babylon  and  Tyre  were  removed 
from  the  map.  Tyre  is  today  a  collection  of 
miserable  huts.  Babylon  is  a  widespread 
desolation  in  which  the  Arab  will  not  pitch  his 
tent,  nor  the  shepherd  fold  his  flocks.  It  was 
declared  that  Babylon  should  be  this  kind  of 
a  place,  and  it  is.  Why  were  not  similar  judg- 
ments threatened  upon  Damascus  ?  Damascus 
lives  today,  a  city  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  inhabitants,  yet  Damascus  was  a  sin- 
ful city,  as  I  have  said  above,  deserved  judg- 
ment and  received  it ;  but  the  prophets  told  in 
detail  the  ruin  that  was  to  come  upon  certain 


136  Visions  and  Voices 

cities,  and  their  detailed  descriptions  have 
been  fulfilled.  This  sort  of  work  cannot  be 
attributed  to  guessing — at  least,  men  nowa- 
days cannot  guess  this  way.  Thoughtful  men 
do  not  dare  to  try.  If  fools  rushed  in  where 
angels  fear  to  tread,  they  would  probably  be 
confounded  by  the  event. 

The  Prophecies  of  Jesus. 

These  prophecies  were  verbal  and  typical 
from  the  beginning  of  the  creation  up  to  the 
end  of  the  Old  Testament  writing.  In  the 
Garden  of  Eden  God  promised  Eve  that  one 
of  her  children  should  bruise  the  head  of  the 
serpent  who  had  deceived  her.  No  one,  so 
far  as  I  know,  pretends  to  assign  this  prophecy 
to  anyone  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Direct- 
ly thereafter  we  are  told  that  Adam  and  Eve 
were  clothed  in  the  skins  of  beasts,  but  why 
were  beasts  slain?  They  were  not,  at  that  time, 
permitted  for  food.  Why  did  God  avail  Him- 
self of  the  skins  of  the  beasts  for  the  clothing 
of  His  sinful,  ashamed  children?  The  offer- 
ings of  Cain  and  Abel  seem  to  throw  light 
on  this  question.  Abel  brought  for  his  offer- 
ing, from  the  flock,  a  slain  lamb,  and  his  offer- 
ing was  accepted.  Why?  Because  of  the 
confession  implied  and  probably  because  it 


Did  the  Prophets  Foretell  337 

was  in  obedience  to  divine  direction ;  certainly 
sacrifice  for  sin  came  early  into  the  history  of 
the  human  race  and  sacrifices  for  sin  were 
typical  declarations  that  a  great  Sacrifice  was 
to  come,  a  Sacrifice  which  was  actually  to  ac- 
complish that  which  its  foreshadowings  never 
could  do. 

The  Bible  writers  knew  that  it  was  impos- 
sible for  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  to  take 
away  sin  (Heb.  10:4).  These  offerings  were 
perpetually  renewed  because,  while  they  did 
atone  for  sin,  they  did  not  take  it  away.  They 
were  accepted  for  the  sin  confessed,  but  they 
must  needs  be  perpetually  renewed.  But 
Jesus,  by  one  offering,  perfected  forever  those 
who  are  sanctified,  and  when  the  true  Offer- 
ing had  come,  the  typical  offerings  ceased. 

By  what  chance  does  it  happen  that  blood 
offerings  for  sin  have  ceased  throughout  the 
entire  world,  except  among  a  few  savage 
tribes?  What  man  can  see  the  universal  use 
of  sacrifices  up  to  the  coming  of  Jesus  and  the 
universal  cessation  of  sacrifices  since  He  was 
here,  without  believing  the  prophecies  which 
were  made  concerning  Him? 

As  days  went  on,  the  shadows  began  to  pass 
away  and  the  realities  began  to  exhibit  them- 
selves.    Isaiah,  in  that  wonderful  fifty-third 


138  Visions  and  Voices 

chapter,  which  my  Jewish  friend  undertook 
to  explain  away,  draws  a  full-length  portrait 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  sufferer;  and  the  same 
prophet  speaks  of  the  days  when  the  suffer- 
ing Saviour  is  to  become  the  reigning  King; 
when  God^s  people  are  to  be  comforted  and 
their  enemies  are  to  be  under  their  feet. 
The  very  manner  of  His  death  is  described, 
the  disposition  of  His  garments,  the  drinks 
which  were  to  be  offered  to  Him  at  the  time  of 
His  crucifixion ;  the  time  of  His  slumber  in  the 
grave  was  distinctly  foretold ;  His  resurrection 
was  predicted ;  and  these  events  have  come  to 
pass. 

There  yet  remains  to  be  fulfilled  the  promise 
of  the  golden  age,  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth,  the  millennial  reign  of  our  Lord.  That 
has  not  yet  come  to  be,  but  those  who  read 
the  former  prophecies  and  remember  for  how 
many  centuries  men  had  to  wait  for  their  ful- 
filling, and  yet  how  literally  they  have  been 
fulfilled,  find  it  easy  to  believe  that  that  which 
remains  shall  yet  be  accomplished,  and  that,  as 
the  suffering  Saviour,  foretold,  has  come,  and 
done  His  great  work  of  redemption,  so  the 
kingly  Saviour  will  come,  destroying  His  en- 
emies and  establishing  His  kingdom  among 
His  people. 


Did  the  Prophets  Foretell  139 

The  Case  of  the  Jews. 

Associated  with  prophecies  of  the  Messiah 
are  always  prophecies  to  be  found  concerning 
the  Jews.  For  some  reason  they  were  God's 
chosen  people — I  do  not  think  anyone  can  tell 
why — God  does  not  tell  why.  He  tells  why 
He  did  not  choose  thejn,  but  He  does  not  tell 
why  He  did  choose  them,  except  that  He  chose 
to  choose.  But  here  are  the  Jews.  They 
have  a  life  history  now  approximately  of  four 
thousand  years.  The  prophets  declared  be- 
forehand all  that  has  come  to  them,  not  in 
general  and  indefinite  terms,  but  specifically 
and  in  detail.  No  man  can  read  what  they 
say  should  come  upon  the  Jews  without  say- 
mg  to  himself,  "All  this  has  been  fulfilled." 
But  there  are  prophecies  concerning  them 
which  have  not  been  fulfilled.  It  is  declared, 
for  example,  that  they  shall  yet  dwell  in  their 
own  land,  the  land  which  was  given  them  by 
covenant  with  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob.  It 
is  declared  that  the  streets  of  their  cities  shall 
be  filled  v/ith  boys  and  girls  playing,  that  the 
fruitfulness  of  their  land  shall  return,  that 
the  scattered  and  dissevered  people  shall 
be  united,  that  Israel  shall  no  longer  vex 
Ephraim,  that  Ephraim  shall  no  longer  envy 


I40  Visions  and  Voices 

Judah.     It  is  declared  that  they  shall  have 
a  King  who  is  to  reign  in  righteousness. 
The  Jews  have  no  king,  have  not  had  a 
king  since  Solomon,  nearly  or  quite  three 
thousand  years  ago,  yet  it  is  declared  that 
they  shall  have  a  King  and  that  He  shall 
reign  in  righteousness,  not  to  be  such  a  king 
as  on  the  other  side  the  sea  at  this  time  is  send- 
ing young  men  to  death  by  millions,  for  no 
crime,  simply  because  of  his  own  lawless,  un- 
bridled ambition ;  and  it  is  declared  that,  when 
the  Jews  have  been  restored  to  their  own 
land,  when  the  land  has  been  redeemed  from 
its  centuries  of  desolation,  when  their  King 
shall  sit  upon  the  throne  of  David  and  reign 
in  righteousness,  the  saints  shall  reign  with 
Him. 

All  these  prophecies  are  before  us.  No  one 
claims  that  they  have  been  fulfilled.  People 
who  do  not  believe  the  Bible — some  of  them — 
declare  that  they  cannot  be  fulfilled.  Some 
people  who  do  believe  the  Bible  in  general, 
when  they  come  to  these  great  prophecies, 
hesitate  and  doubt.  These  latter  prophecies 
await  the  unfolding  years,  but  as  men  waited 
for  centuries  before  Jesus  came  to  suffer,  so 
men  can  afford  to  wait  for  centuries,  if  need 
be,  until  He  comes  to  reign.    But  as  after  the 


Did  the  Prophets  Foretell  141 

waiting  time  He  did  come  to  suffer,  so  we 
have  reason  to  believe  that  He  will  yet  come 
to  reign. 

Evidently  the  prophets  have  foretold;  evi- 
dently some  of  their  foretellings  have  been  ful- 
filled, and  it  is  equally  evident  that  some  of 
their  prophecies  yet  remain  to  bless  the  world 
in  their  fulfilling. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  PICKAX  AND  SPADE. 

The  world,  though  it  is  an  insignificant  dot 
among  the  planets  and  stars,  is  to  us  im- 
portant. It  is  our  home  for  the  present.  It 
has  been  dignified  by  the  presence  of  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh.  It  is  yet  to  be  honored 
by  His  presence  as  a  reigning  Sovereign.  It 
is  of  particular  interest  to  us,  who  have  been 
redeemed  by  His  precious  blood,  because  in 
that  day  we  also  shall  reign  with  Him.  The 
kingdom  is  His,  but  the  kingdom  belongs  to 
His  saints  as  well. 

The  world  is  also  interesting  as  an  object  of 
study.  Geology,  digging  down  through  the 
rock  foundations,  teaches  us  a  thousand 
things  about  the  thought  of  God  in  creation. 
The  plant  life  and  the  animal  life  of  the  world, 
the  flowers  that  bloom  on  the  hills,  and  the 
trees  which  clothe  the  mountains  with  their 
shaggy  forests,  all  these  are  wonderful.  The 
differences  of  soil  are  most  remarkable,  and 
the  differences  of  climate. 

I  have  ridden  for  a  whole  day,  in  the  state 


The  Pickax  and  Spade  143 

of  Texas,  where  nothing  was  in  sight  on  the 
ground  but  rocks  and  sand,  yet  one  can  ride 
for  days  in  Texas  where  nothing  is  in  sight 
but  fruitful  soil  and  its  products. 

A  friend  of  mine  who  lived  in  India,  once 
said  to  me  that  they  had  ample  rain  in  the 
region  where  he  lived  for  the  vegetation  of 
the  entire  year,  but  that  this  rain  came  within 
a  period  of  ninety  days.  All  the  rest  of  the 
year  there  was  no  rain,  so,  unless  in  some 
way  this  supply  should  be  stored  up  in  the 
earth,  famines  were  probable,  though  the  soil 
was  fruitful  and  the  rainfall  abundant. 

Those  of  us  who  dwell  in  the  garden  spots 
of  the  world  have  a  right  to  marvel  and  the 
duty  of  gratitude.  The  timely  rains,  the  green 
grass,  the  luxuriant  foliage  of  the  trees,  the 
marvelous  variety  in  the  flowers,  the  vege- 
tables, the  fruits,  all  these  are  occasions  of 
perpetual  wonder  and  gratitude. 

I  have  been  led  to  this  train  of  thought  by 
thinking  of  those  marvelous  countries  where 
God  has  so  wonderfully  preserved  the  wit- 
nesses to  His  Word.  It  is  only  a  few  years, 
comparatively  speaking,  since  pickax  and 
spade  began  to  do  their  work  in  Bible  lands. 
For  centuries  nobody  cared  to  do  any  work 
of  excavation.     If  men  had  cared  to  do  it,  the 


144  Visions  and  Voices 

inhabitants  were  largely  so  savage  that  it 
would  have  been  unsafe  to  undertake  it;  but 
the  slow-moving  centuries  have  passed.  Na- 
tions that  recognize  the  Bible  have  obtained 
military  power  over  the  whole  world.  Even 
Lassa,  the  capital  of  Tibet,  has  been  occupied 
by  the  British  army.  Germany  has  been  push- 
ing a  railroad  down  the  Euphrates  Valley. 
Africa  has  been  parceled  out  among  so-called 
Christian  nations  of  the  world. 

While  military  power  has  thus  come  to  these 
nations,  intellectual  life  has  also  been  their 
portion.  It  is  now  perhaps  five  hundred  years 
since  great  universities  began  to  be — over- 
crowded and  formless  at  first  but  throbbing 
with  intellectual  life — virgin  soil  for  scholarly 
men,  and  as  the  years  have  passed,  learning 
has  become  more  exact  and  the  field  continu- 
ally widened. 

Among  other  things,  men  have  become  in- 
terested in  the  languages  of  dead  nations. 
Stones  covered  with  inscriptions,  sides  of 
mountains  covered  with  inscriptions,  baked 
tablets  covered  with  inscriptions,  cylindrical 
stones  covered  with  inscriptions,  one  by  one, 
sometimes  hundreds  by  hundreds,  occasion- 
ally thousands  by  thousands,  these  silent,  elo- 


The  Pickax  and  Spade  145 

quent  witnesses  have  come  to  the  stand  to 
tell  their  story. 

Sargon  and  the  Hittites. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  one  of  the  proofs  I  used 
to  see  occasionally  that  the  Bible  was  an  un- 
trustworthy book  was  the  fact  that  the  Bible 
talked  about  Sargon  as  an  Assyrian  king 
whereas  there  never  had  been  any  Sargon. 
The  lists  of  Assyrian  kings  were  known  and 
this  man  was  not  found  among  them.  For 
many  years  this  remained  true  and  it  was  im- 
possible to  confirm  the  Bible  account  of  his  ex- 
pedition against  the  Holy  Land  from  the 
monuments;  but  men  kept  at  work — Rawlin- 
son,  Layard,  Murchison  and  a  host  of  lesser 
lights  were  busy  with  pickax  and  spade.  They 
excavated  on  the  site  of  Nineveh,  they  ex- 
cavated on  the  site  of  Babylon.  I  myself  saw 
such  people  at  work  under  the  foundations  of 
the  exhumed  city  of  Pompeii.  Permits  have 
been  granted  by  Governments  for  excavations 
in  Eg}^t,  for  excavations  in  Turkey,  for  ex- 
cavations in  Assyria,  for  excavations  in 
Arabia — all  over  the  East  these  armies  of  pio- 
neers have  been  working  for  the  revelation  of 
the  long- forgotten  past. 


146  Visions  and  Voices 

Of  course  their  work  was  rewarded.  Every 
now  and  again  some  monument  was  dis- 
covered which  told  the  story  of  life  in  the 
long  ago,  and  often  these  stories  came  in  touch 
with  Bible  narratives.  Stories  of  the  deluge, 
stories  respecting  social  and  political  customs, 
bodies  of  law,  what  not.  Now  among  the 
rest  was  found  a  cylinder  containing  an  ac- 
count of  the  expedition  of  Sargon,  King  of 
Assyria,  against  the  Holy  Land ;  the  victories 
which  he  obtained,  the  ruin  which  he 
wrought,  all  were  clearly  set  forth.  Then  men 
who  had  refused  to  believe  the  Word  of  God 
believed  the  old  stone  which  had  been  buried 
in  a  dry  place  where  its  inscriptions  were 
not  seriously  injured  for  centuries.  I  be- 
lieved the  stone,  too.  I  valued  the  stone  as  a 
corroborative  witness,  but  the  witness-in-chief 
was  quite  sufficient  for  me. 

I  do  not  understand  how  men  can  wish  to 
confirm  stones  by  the  Bible.  I  desire  to  con- 
firm the  Bible  by  stones,  and  if  I  do  not  find 
any  stones  to  confirm  the  Bible,  I  believe  the 
Bible  just  the  same. 

No  Dissenting  Voice. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  up  to  this  present 
hour  no  tablet,  mountain  inscription,  monu- 


The  Pickax  and  Spade  147 

mental  inscription,  nothing  of  the  kind  re- 
vealed by  pickax  and  spade  has  been  found  to 
contradict  a  single  Biblical  statement  of  fact. 
This  is  a  most  wonderful  thing,  when  we  con- 
sider it  in  all  its  bearings.  If,  from  time  to 
time,  we  should  find  statements  which  did  con- 
tradict the  Bible,  they  would  not  affect  the 
truth  of  the  Bible  to  my  mind,  for  the  char- 
acter of  this  Book  is  so  thoroughly  established, 
it  has  lasted  out  so  many  centuries,  millenni-^ 
ums,  it  has  performed  such  a  beneficent  work 
for  individuals,  families,  cities,  nations,  that, 
even  if  I  should  find  that  some  old  heathen, 
three  thousand  years  ago,  declared  that  a  por- 
tion of  this  Word  was  untrue,  I  would  not  be- 
lieve him;  I  would  believe  the  Word;  but  I 
am  glad,  nevertheless,  that  these  old  heathens 
were  more  sensible,  apparently,  than  many  of 
the  alleged  scholars  of  our  time,  and  that  up  to 
this  present  hour  no  single  instance  is  known 
in  which  a  monument  of  antiquity  has  con- 
tradicted the  testimony  of  the  Word  of  God. 
On  the  other  hand,  scores,  perhaps  hundreds 
of  antiquities,  have  been  uncovered  and 
placed  in  the  museums  throughout  the  world 
which  clearly  and  definitely  confirm  the  testi- 
mony of  Holy  Scripture.  Take  for  example 
the  Hittites.     I  never  knew  anybody  to  object 


14B  Visions  and  Voices 

to  the  Bible  account  of  the  Hittites  until  re- 
cently, but  a  few  years  ago  someone  criticized 
the  Bible  account  of  this  ancient,  wicked 
people,  and  I  think  said  that  there  were  no 
such  folk,  yet  now  the  history  of  the  Hittites 
has  been  revealed  by  pickax  and  spade. 

It  is  one  of  my  dreams  that  yet  in  the  old 
world  there  will  be  found,  hidden  away  in 
some  cave,  dry  and  safe  for  manuscripts,  the 
original  copies  of  the  prophets,  perhaps  the 
very  words  which  Moses  wrote.  Why  not? 
Continually  we  are  pushing  the  lines  farther 
and  farther  back  into  the  shadows  of  the  past. 
Today  manuscripts  and  monuments  are  in 
hand  which  a  few  years  ago  were  entirely  un- 
dreamed of.  Who  is  to  draw  the  line  and 
say.  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther  ? 

I  affirm  nothing  as  to  what  is  to  be.  I  do 
not  claim  to  be  a  prophet  or  the  son  of  a 
prophet,  but  I  do  claim  to  know  a  little  of  the 
history  of  the  excavations  in  the  far  East, 
as  related  to  Bible  narratives ;  and  that  which 
I  know  I  affirm,  have  already  affirmed,  expect 
to  repeat  frequently,  that  the  pickax  and  the 
spade  never  contradict  the  Word  of  God,  that 
so  far  as  they  say  anything  they  affirm  the 
Word  of  God ;  and  I  believe  that  their  revela- 
tions are  not  concluded,  that  there  is  yet  to 


The  Pickax  and  Spade  149 

be  a  great  body  of  evidence  for  the  truth  of 
Scripture  thus  revealed  which,  at  the  present 
time,  is  visible  only  to  the  all-seeing  eye  of 
God. 


CHAPTER  XIL 

WHY   DO   WE  BELIEVE   THE   MIR- 

ACLES  OF  THE  BIBLE  TO  HAVE 

BEEN  WROUGHT? 

I  have  spoken,  in  the  chapter  on  Jesus  and 
the  Bible,  of  His  testimony  to  these  miracles. 
That  would  be  quite  sufficient  for  me  if  there 
were  no  other  evidence.  I  believe  Jesus 
Christ  to  have  been  God,  manifest  in  the  flesh. 
I  believe  that  it  was  by  Him  that  God  made 
the  worlds,  that  He  was  the  brightness  of  His 
glory,  the  express  image  of  His  person,  that 
He  upholds  all  things  by  the  word  of  His 
power,  and  that  when  He  had  by  Himself 
purged  our  sins.  He  sat  down  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high  (Heb.  1:2,  3). 
This  being  my  faith,  of  course  I  need  no  testi- 
mony to  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  except  His 
testimony. 

When  He  certified  to  the  Old  Testament, 
telling  us  to  search  it,  and  when  He  certi- 
fied to  the  New  Testament,  telling  us  that  He 
would  give  those  who  wrote  it  the  Holy  Spirit 
so  that  they  might  remember  the  things  which 


Why  Do  We  Believe  151 

they  ought  to  say,  that  is  quite  sufficient  for 
me;  but  because  it  is  proper  to  call  two  or 
three  witnesses,  even  when  one's  testimony  is 
enough,  I  propose  in  this  chapter  to  speak  a 
little  in  detail  of  the  reasons  for  believing 
the  miracles  of  the  Bible  to  have  been 
wrought,  as  the  Bible  declares. 

I  shall  omit  the  general  testimony  of  Jesus 
to  the  whole  Book,  though  I  may  speak  of  His 
dealing  with  some  individual  cases,  and  I 
think  I  will  begin  with  His  reference  to  the 
case  of  Jonah.  I  do  this  because  I  consider 
the  manner  in  which  this  prophet's  work  has 
been  treated  so  shameless  and  wicked. 

Three  Days  in  the  Earth. 

Jesus  was  approaching  the  end  of  His 
earthly  ministry.  The  quiet  years  at  Naza- 
reth, where  He  sat  in  the  evening  with  Joseph 
and  Mary  and  learned  from  tliem  the  story  of 
His  people ;  the  stormy  years  of  public  teach- 
ing, when  He  was  misunderstood  by  His  dis- 
ciples, by  the  sons  of  Mary,  hated  and  hunted 
by  the  ecclesiastical  leaders  of  His  time — 
these  years  were  done.  He  was  passing  out 
into  that  frightful  period  which  closed  His 
earthly  career.  He  was  trying  to  get  His 
disciples  to  understand  the  events  which  were 


152  Visions  and  Voices 

at  hand,  that  they  might  not  be  disappointed 
by  them,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  might  be  en- 
ergized by  them  for  the  great  work  to  which 
they  were  called.  So  He  began  to  tell  them 
about  the  things  which  He  must  suffer. 

Among  other  things  he  said,  "As  Jonah  was 
three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  whale's 
belly,  so  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  three  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth" 
(Matt.  12:40).  Let  us  remember  the  solemn 
occasion  on  which  these  words  were  uttered, 
the  time  in  His  life,  the  purpose  which  He  had 
in  view,  and  let  me  ask  any  thoughtful  person 
who  reads  whether  or  not  on  such  an  occasion 
our  Lord  would  have  been  likely  to  trifle  with 
historic  fact,  or  whether  we  have  a  right  to 
believe  that  He  would  have  reported  things  as 
they  actually  are. 

Of  course  I  am  not  undertaking  to  give  the 
law  to  anybody  else;  I  am  simply  expressing 
the  judgments  which  seem  to  me  necessarily 
true  when  I  say  I  find  it  utterly  impossible 
to  believe  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  would 
have  made  this  reference  if  Jonah  had  not 
been  swallowed  by  a  great  fish,  retained  for 
three  days  in  his  stomach,  and  then  vomited 
forth  on  the  dry  land. 

I  do  not  here  cover  the  ground  which  I 


Why  Do  We  Believe  153 

have  formerly  traversed  in  reference  to  the 
effect  of  this  miracle  on  his  preaching.  I  am 
speaking  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  and  I  ask 
whether  or  not  He  would  have  been  likely 
at  such  a  time,  for  such  a  purpose,  to  have 
made  a  historic  reference  which  had  no  foun- 
dation in  fact.  Anyone  who  chooses  to  be- 
lieve this  and  is  able  to  believe  it  may;  I 
cannot  and  do  not.  I  believe  just  as  much 
in  the  historicity  of  Jonah  and  the  truth  of 
the  narrative  concerning  his  flight,  the  man- 
ner in  which  God  checked  it,  and  the  resulting 
preaching,  as  I  believe  in  the  existence  of 
George  Washington,  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, the  existence  of  King  John  of 
England,  or  the  Magna  Charta. 

The  Miracles  of  Jesus. 

Suppose  that  Jesus  was  the  Person  that  the 
Bible  declares  Him  to  be,  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh;  suppose  that  the  Creator  of  the  uni- 
verse elected  to  occupy  human  form  and  to 
dwell  in  this  world  for  a  number  of  years, 
teaching  and  suffering  that  He  might  bring 
men  to  Himself.  Allow,  I  say,  that  this  is 
true.  If  it  were  true,  would  it  be  natural  that 
this  marvelous  Being  should  come  into  the 
world  as  other  men  had?    He  must  be  bom 


154  Visions  and  Voices^ 

of  woman,  for  He  must  partake  of  our  na- 
tures if  He  was  to  sympathize  with  us  in  our 
temptations  and  trials  and  atone  for  our  sins, 
but  would  it  have  been  natural  that  He  should 
be  bom  as  other  men  are?  If  God  should 
create  the  infant  life  in  Mary,  the  mother, 
then  He  would,  on  the  one  hand,  represent 
Deity,  and,  on  the  other,  could  be  touched  with 
the  infirmities  of  man.  He  would  thus  become 
qualified  to  be  a  mediator  between  God  and 
man.  If  God  was  thus  to  take  upon  Himself 
human  form,  would  it  be  natural  that  stars 
should  shine  supernaturally  ?  Would  it  be 
natural  that  angels  should  break  through  the 
skies  to  sing  and  that  shepherds  and  wise 
men  should  be  moved  strangely  at  His  advent  ? 
If  God  should  really  take  upon  Himself 
human  form,  becoming  for  us  a  man,  would 
it  be  natural  that  He  should  certify  His 
divine  character  by  works,  such  as  no  man 
can  do?  I  say,  would  we  naturally  expect 
this?  Would  it  be  natural  that  He  should 
heal  the  sick,  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  un- 
stop the  ears  of  the  deaf,  give  feet  to  the  lame, 
cleansing  to  the  leper,  peace  and  quiet  to 
the  demon-driven;  that  He  should  preach  the 
Gospel  to  the  poor? 
If  men  were  to  take  such  a  person  with 


Why  Do  We  Believe  155 

wicked  hands  and  crucify  and  kill  Him,  would 
it  be  natural  that  the  heavens  should  be  dark, 
that  the  earth  should  tremble,  that  graves 
should  be  opened  and  that  dead  saints  should 
come  forth?  Would  it  be  natural  that  He 
should  rise  from  the  dead,  show  Himself  to 
His  friends  and  empower  His  followers  to  do 
the  sort  of  works  that  He  did,  that  their  testi- 
mony might  be  believed?  Would  it  be  natu- 
ral that  He  should  say  to  men,  "If  you  do 
not  believe  me,  believe  the  works"  ? 

In  other  words,  are  the  miracles  of  both  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  such  occurrences 
as  a  rational,  thoughtful  man  would  reasonably 
expect  in  the  times  and  under  the  circum- 
stances which  then  existed?  It  seems  to  me 
that  for  a  reasonable  being  there  is  only  one 
answer  to  questions  like  these,  and  I  believe  the 
miracles  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
for  the  reasons  above  stated,  if  for  no  other. 

There  are  many  other  proofs,  but  these 
would  be  sufficient  for  me  if  they  stood  alone. 

The  Story  of  the  Church. 

I  have  referred  several  times  in  this  writing 
to  the  miraculous  history  of  the  Christian 
church.  It  is,  however,  a  great  subject,  has 
never  yet  been  exhausted  and  is  not  likely  to 


156  Visions  and  Voices 

be,  so  I  make  no  apology  for  referring  to 

it  in  this  connection. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect.  This  is  a  principle  which  is  imbedded 
in  the  reason  of  the  race.  Every  little  child 
understands  it  as  well  as  a  philosopher.  He 
looks  from  the  event  to  the  cause  precisely  as 
the  most  scholarly  man  in  the  world  would  do. 

Now  the  church  is  a  tremendous  effect.  I 
admit  all  its  defects,  all  the  imperfections  that 
arise  from  our  human  weakness.  These  are 
neither  denied  nor  forgotten;  but  the  church 
is  a  tremendous  effect.  It  is  a  wonderful 
thing  to  have  hundreds  of  millions  of  people 
profess  one  faith.  It  is  most  remarkable  that 
men,  in  the  struggle  for  life,  should  set  aside 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  for  the  erec- 
tion of  churches  and  the  maintenance  of  re- 
ligious exercises  of  various  sorts. 

There  are  today  twenty-five  thousana  na- 
tives of  European  and  American  countries, 
missionaries  in  foreign  lands.  The  tests  to 
which  they  are  subjected  are  not  so  severe  as 
they  were  fifty  or  one  hundred  years  ago,  but 
still  these  people  leave  their  friends,  their 
comfortable  homes ;  they  go  into  streets  which 
are  reeking  with  filth,  into  homes  which  are 
swarming  with  vermin;  they  yet  travel  in  re- 


Why  Do  We  Believe  157 

gions  where  life  is  in  hourly  danger,  and  all 
this  they  do,  twenty-five  thousand  men  and 
women,  to  preach  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom,  the  Saviour  of  the 
world. 

A  Jew  was  recently  sitting  in  the  great  hall 
built  by  the  Los  Angeles  Bible  Institute.  That 
group  of  buildings  with  the  land  cost  approxi- 
mately two  millions  of  dollars.  The  great 
hall  seats  over  four  thousand  persons.  The 
Jew  sat  there  wonderingly  through  an  hour  or 
so,  and,  the  service  closing,  said  to  a  friend 
of  mine,  "There  must  be  something  in  the 
Christian  religion  or  men  would  not  put  so 
much  money  as  there  is  in  this  building  into 
it."  He  was  a  reasonable  Jew.  Any  sensible 
man  would  say  the  same.  People  do  not  spend 
their  money  by  hundreds  of  thousands  and 
millions  of  dollars  without  some  sort  of  a 
reason ;  but  that  great  building,  beautiful  and 
expensive  as  it  is,  is  like  a  grain  of  sand  com- 
pared with  a  mountain  range  when  measured 
against  the  monies  which  have  been  put  into 
Christian  churches,  schools  and  enterprises  of 
all  sorts  from  the  beginning  until  now. 

Here,  I  say,  we  have  a  tremendous  effect. 
One  who  does  not  think  very  much  of  course 
will  not  appreciate  it,  but  no  man  who  thinks 


158  Visions  and  Voices 

can  consider  the  history  of  the  church  without 
being  awe- stricken. 

The  Church  Built  on  the  Miracles. 

Now  the  Christian  church  is  the  only  insti- 
tution in  the  world  which,  from  its  origin,  de- 
manded to  be  received  on  the  truth  of  super- 
natural works.  The  Christian  church  did  de- 
mand to  be  so  received  and  was  so  received 
from  the  beginning.  As  I  have  already  re- 
minded you,  Jesus  said,  "If  you  do  not  believe 
me,  believe  the  works"  (John  10:38);  and 
again,  "That  ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of 
man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins,  he 
saith  unto  the  sick  of  the  palsy,  Rise  up  and 
walk"  (Matt.  9:6). 

We  are  to  remember  that  the  miracles  of 
the  Bible  were  not  like  the  spiritualistic  mir- 
acles of  our  time.  They  were  not  wrought 
in  a  corner.  When  our  Lord  was  about  to 
heal  a  sick  man,  or  raise  a  dead  one.  He  did 
not  first  get  the  invalid  or  the  corpse  into  a 
room  with  a  handful  of  adherents  about  Him 
and  turn  down  the  lights.  His  miracles  were 
wrought  before  men,  most  of  them,  per- 
haps every  one,  in  broad  daylight.  He  was 
surrounded  in  many  cases  not  alone  by  crowds 
of  friends  but  by  deadly  enemies,  enemies  who 


Why  Do  We  Believe  159 

hated  Him  to  death,  who  hunted  Him  Hke  a 
wolf  to  His  very  Cross. 

These  miracles  were  preached,  especially 
the  great  miracle  of  the  resurrection,  every- 
where. The  apostles  did  not  wait  until  they 
got  to  Antioch  or  Rome  or  Corinth  to  declare 
the  resurrection.  Within  a  few  weeks  after  it 
occurred,  Peter  stood  up  in  the  city  where 
Jesus  was  murdered  and  where  He  rose  from 
the  dead  and  said  to  the  Jews,  "You  crucified 
and  murdered  Jesus  Christ,  but  God  has 
raised  Him  from  the  dead.*'  From  this  as  a 
center,  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  was 
preached  wherever  the  Gospel  went.  It  was 
not  only  preached,  it  was  believed,  and  it  was 
not  believed  in  a  lazy,  half  and  half  fashion, 
but  it  was  believed  by  men  and  women  so  un- 
questionably that  in  testimony  of  their  faith 
they  went  cheerfully  to  die  in  every  horrible 
fashion  that  the  ingenuity  of  devils  and  men 
could  invent.  Simple  beheading  or  hanging 
would  have  been  the  height  of  mercy  com- 
pared with  the  manner  in  which  these  brave 
brothers  and  sisters  of  ours  went  singing  to 
their  doom. 

From  that  day  to  this  present  hour,  the 
miracles  have  been  part  and  parcel  of  the 
teaching  of  the  church  throughout  the  whole 


i6o  Visions  and  Voices 

world.  Common  people  have  never  found  it 
difficult  to  believe  the  record.  Everywhere 
infidelity  in  regard  to  the  supernatural  has 
been  the  work  of  paid  defenders  of  the  Faith 
— more  is  the  shame  and  more  is  the  pity ;  but 
everyone  knows  that  this  is  true. 

We  are  in  the  last  days,  and  the  darkness 
deepens  as  the  sun  goes  down,  but  if  the  night 
comes,  the  morning  also  comes,  and  soon  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  will  arise  with  healing 
in  His  wings.  It  behooves  us  who  have  been 
redeemed  by  the  precious  blood  of  Jesus  to 
contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  which  was 
once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints.  At  such 
a  time  as  we  do  not  think,  the  Son  of  man 
comes ;  and  when  He  comes,  it  is  well  that  He 
finds  us  watching  and  working. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
MODERN  MIRACLES. 

Persons  who  object  to  the  miracles  of  the 
Bible  frequently  remind  us  that  bogus  signs 
and  wonders  are  common  in  our  time.  They 
talk  of  the  alleged  miracles  of  Spiritualism, 
Roman  Catholicism  and  Christian  Science. 
They  declare  that  these  miracles  are  very 
largely  fraudulent  and  they  thus  seek  to  throw 
a  shade  of  doubt  upon  the  wonders  of  the 
Word  of  God.  Respecting  these  alleged  mir- 
acles, two  or  three  things  may  be  said. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
deny  that  some  of  these  alleged  marvels  are 
actually  true.  The  Bible  recognizes  the  fact 
that  demons  have  power  to  work  miracles 
(Rev.  13:13).  They  have  far  greater  power 
than  we,  why  should  they  not  do  works  im- 
possible to  us,  that  is,  works  which  are  to  us 
miracles  and  wonders?  Still  further,  there 
is  an  element  of  truth  in  all  these  systems. 
The  Roman  catechism  says:  "We  receive  all 
gifts,  even  eternal  life,  solely  through  the 
death  and  merits  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 


1 62  Visions  and  Voices 

This  is  true,  no  matter  who  says  it.  There 
have  been  many  thousands  of  humble  Chris- 
tians in  the  Romish  church.  Luther  and 
Melanchthon  were  in  the  Romish  church 
when  they  were  converted.  Fenelon  and 
Madame  Guyon  lived  and  died  in  that  church 
and  they  were  near  to  the  heart  of  God.  Who 
is  to  prove  that  humble  souls  like  these  may 
not  have  been  permitted  at  times  to  work 
signs  and  wonders  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  ?    I  certainly  have  no  such  commission. 

Spiritualism  was  a  reaction  against  gross 
and  crude  materialism.  Largely  fraudulent 
as  it  has  always  been,  nevertheless  it  is  true 
we  are  surrounded  by  spirit  intelligences, 
and  it  is  true  that  they  influence  us  in  various 
ways.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  our  teacher,  if 
we  will  have  Him.  If  not,  we  will  be  taught 
by  Satan,  and  Satan  has  a  thousand  imps 
ready  to  run  his  errands  and  do  his  bidding. 

Christian  Science  is  a  system  which,  like 
Seventh  Day  Adventism,  seeks  to  live,  not  by 
attempting  to  save  sinners,  but  by  pulling 
uninformed,  dissatisfied,  unhappy  Christians 
out  of  churches.  I  have  heard  of  godless, 
wicked  men  who  have  been  saved  by  the  teach- 
ing of  Christian  Science,  but  I  never  chanced 
to  know  one  yet.    All  of  my  friends  who  have 


Modem  Miracles  163 

become  Christian  Scientists  were  professed 
Christians  before  they  became  Scientists.  I 
never  knew  one  such  person  who  was  living 
a  grossly  immoral  life.  They  have,  without 
exception,  been  refined,  intelligent,  pleasant 
people.  Those  of  them  whom  I  have  known 
have  never  been  desperately  poor.  The  rule 
is,  I  think,  that  they  are  well-to-do,  if  not 
wealthy.  A  man  who  is  really  up  against  the 
serious  things  of  life  can  hardly  accept  a 
system  which  teaches  him  that  he  can  never 
be  sick  but  that  if  he  is,  somebody  can  help 
him  by  looking  at  him  or  thinking  about  him 
two  dollars'  worth. 

Since  these  people  are  very  largely  those 
who  have  confessed  Christian  faith,  who  have 
the  Bible,  and  who,  in  a  way,  believe  it,  who 
is  to  declare  that  God  will  never  work  won- 
ders for  them?  Certainly  I  will  not.  This 
will  do  for  a  first  remark. 

The  second  one  is  this.  Many  of  these  al- 
leged miracles  do  not  hold  up.  Under  spiritual 
excitement,  a  sort  of  an  ecstasy,  suffering 
people  imagine  themselves  to  be  helped  for  a 
while,  but  realities  press  upon  them  and  they 
fall  back  into  their  suffering  and  ill-health. 
Dr.  Dowie  was  accustomed  to  tell  people  to 
throw  away  their  crutches  and  say  they  were 


164  Visions  and  Voices 

healed  and  could  walk  when  they  were  not 
healed  and  could  not  walk,  and  when  these 
people  came  back  to  him  for  their  crutches 
he  refused  to  give  them  up.  He  would  rather 
they  should  suffer  than  that  he  should  be 
discredited.  Of  course  there  is  only  one  end 
for  a  teacher  like  that. 

Another  fact  to  be  stated  regarding  these 
alleged  miracles  is  that  many  of  them  are 
simply  frauds  and  lies.  Why  do  the  Spiritu- 
alists always  want  the  lights  turned  down  be- 
fore they  have  a  materialization  scene?  If 
the  work  is  genuine  and  real,  it  can  be 
wrought  in  daylight  as  well  as  in  the  dark; 
but  who  ever  heard  of  Spiritualists  proposing 
to  work  their  miracles  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd 
where  all  men  can  see  ?  They  want  a  cabinet, 
a  darkened  room,  something  or  other  so  that 
they  can  fool  the  people  who  are  willing  to 
pay  them  for  being  fooled. 

Another  fact  which  is  to  be  stated  regard- 
ing these  miracles  is  that  the  failures  far  out- 
number the  alleged  successes.  I  have  myself, 
in  the  church  of  St.  Anne  de  Beaupre,  seen 
stacks  of  crutches  and  festoons  of  crutches 
and  trusses.  I  would  be  afraid  even  to  guess 
how  many  there  were  in  these  stacks  and  fes- 
toons.    Certainly  I  think  they  would  be  num- 


Modern  Miracles  165 

bered  by  hundreds;  but  right  around  those 
stacks  of  crutches  and  under  those  festoons 
of  crutches  and  trusses  were  poor  lame  people 
creeping  around  on  hands  and  knees  trying 
»to  be  helped  but  unhelped;  blind  people  led 
by  the  hand,  praying  to  see  but  remaining 
blind.  It  was  pitiful  beyond  expression  and 
it  rendered  one  indignant  at  the  priests  who 
were  fattening  on  their  miseries. 

Another  thing  w^hich  should  be  said  regard- 
ing these  alleged  miracles  is  that  they  lead 
people  to  wonder  at  and  admire  systems  or 
men  rather  than  Jesus  Christ.  A  friend  of 
mine  was  in  a  spiritualistic  seance.  The 
medium  was  in  a  trance  state.  My  friend,  be- 
ing permitted  to  ask  a  question,  asked  this 
medium,  who  professed  to  represent  someone 
in  the  spirit  world,  "Have  you  seen  anything 
of  Jesus  Christ  since  you  were  there?"  And 
the  spirit  answered,  "I  have  been  here  ten 
years  and  I  never  have  seen  or  heard  of  such 
a  person." 

A  friend  of  mine,  who  was  a  very  earnest 
Christian  Scientist,  was  telling  me  what  Chris- 
tian Science  had  done  for  him.  I  said  to  him, 
"Was  it  Christian  Science  or  Jesus  Christ 
that  healed  you?"  "Oh,"  he  said,  "of  course 
it  was  Jesus  Christ."    "Well,"    I  replied,  "as 


i66  Visions  and  Voices 

it  was  Jesus  Christ,  why  do  you  not  say 
something  about  Him  once  in  a  while?  Why 
are  you  always  talking  about  Christian  Sci- 
ence? I  have  heard  you  say  nothing  about 
Jesus  Christ.  If  He  is  the  one  who  has 
helped  you,  I  think  you  owe  it  to  Him  to  say 
something  about  it,"  This  friend  of  mine  was 
not  a  bad  person.  He  was  a  gentleman.  His 
wife  was  for  several  years  my  stenographer. 
She  was  a  lovely  young  woman  and  is  now  a 
happy  and  honored  wife.  They  did  not,  either 
one  of  them,  intend  to  be  untrue  to  the  re- 
ligion which  they  professed  before  they  be- 
came Christian  Scientists,  but  the  system  is 
a  poison.  It  gets  insensibly  into  the  blood  and 
people  are  ruined  as  to  their  faith  before  they 
know  it. 

These  dear  young  people,  whom  I  love  truly, 
had  ceased  to  think  about  Jesus  Christ.  When 
they  were  checked  up  and  required  to  stop, 
they  remembered  that  He  was  their  Saviour; 
but  naturally  they  did  not  think  of  Him  at 
all ;  they  thought  of  Christian  Science,  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  of  Science  and  Health.  This  sort  of 
thing  filled  the  horizon  of  the  mind. 

It  was  so  with  Catholicism.  The  Roman 
Catholic  thinks  of  Mary.  He  thinks  of  the 
priests,  he  thinks  of  the  church,  he  thinks  very 


Modem  Miracles  167 

little  about  the  Saviour.  It  is  a  commonplace 
that  in  the  cathedrals  the  altars  of  the  saints 
and  of  Mary  have  far  more  gifts  than  the  altar 
of  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  preached  by  the  sys- 
tem, but  He  is  buried  under  the  prominence 
of  the  priests  and  of  the  sacraments. 

Another  thing  which  ought  to  be  said  re- 
specting these  alleged  miracles  is  that  they 
do  not  lead  to  holiness  of  character.  Why 
should  they?  There  is  no  being  in  the  uni- 
verse except  Jesus  Christ  who  can  make  a 
sinful  man  holy,  and  any  system  which  fast- 
ens the  thought  on  any  other  one  than  Him 
will  necessarily  make  men  unholy  rather  than 
holy. 

I  read  recently  of  a  devout  Catholic  in 
South  America  who  had  been  attending  the 
Catholic  church  all  his  life,  going  around  oc- 
casionally for  absolution  and  the  sacrament. 
The  missionary  spoke  to  him  about  Jesus  and 
he  said,  **Who  is  He?  I  never  heard  of 
Him."  He  had  been  taught  to  pray,  "Mary, 
mother  of  God,  pity  us.  Mary,  mother  of 
God,  help  us.  Holy  Mary,  mother  of  God^ 
intercede  for  us ;"  but  he  knew  nothing  about 
Jesus  Christ. 

The  whole  list  of  false  faiths  from  the  be- 
ginning until  now  is  of  one  sort  in  regard 


i68  Visions  and  Voices 

to  Jesus.  As  in  the  Masonic  lodges,  the  Odd 
Fellow  lodges,  so  in  all  the  lodges  of  our 
time  which  are  distinctly  religious  in  char- 
acter, Jesus  Christ  is  outlawed.  Satan  knows 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Saviour.  When  the 
miracles  were  wrought  in  the  times  of  the 
apostles,  and  Peter  had  preached  the  resur- 
rection to  the  men  who  had  murdered  Jesus, 
the  people  cried  out,  "What  must  we  do  to  be 
saved?"  They  knew  they  were  sinners,  they 
wanted  to  be  saved.  The  same  teaching  pro- 
duces the  same  effects  today.  Where  men 
believe  the  Bible,  the  miracles  of  the  Bible, 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  they  are  rebuked 
because  of  their  sins,  they  are  ashamed  of 
them,  they  are  sorry  for  them,  they  get  them 
forgiven  through  the  blood  of  Jesus  and  they 
live  new  lives;  but  false  faiths,  heathen  re- 
ligions and  sham  miracles  have  never  pro- 
duced such  results.  From  the  nature  of  the 
case  they  never  can. 

The  miracles  of  the  Bible  in  every  essen- 
tial particular  differ  from  these  frauds  which 
are  palmed  off  upon  ignorant  and  foolish 
people  in  our  time.  In  the  first  place,  the 
former  were,  practically  all  of  them,  works  of 
mercy — ^none  of  them  wrought  for  the  sake  of 
creating  wonder.    The  fevered,  the  leprous. 


Modem  Miracles  169 

the  lame,  the  deaf,  the  dumb,  the  blind,  all 
these  and  multitudes  of  others  were  healed 
by  the  touch  of  their  teachers  and  went  their 
way  to  praise  Jesus  Christ  Who  had  had  com- 
passion upon  them. 

These  miracles,  as  I  have  said  above,  were 
all  of  them  wrought  in  daylight,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  numbers  of  people.  When  our  Lord 
was  to  raise  the  daughter  of  Jairus,  though 
He  would  not  permit  the  howling  multitude 
to  come  into  the  death  room,  He  would  not 
go  in  alone.  He  took  with  Him  three  dis- 
ciples and  the  mother  and  father  of  the 
maiden.  In  the  presence  of  these  five  wit- 
nesses He  said  to  the  dead  child,  "Damsel,  I 
say  unto  thee  arise;  and  straightway  she 
sat  up." 

In  Spiritualistic  circles  frequently  the  me- 
dium says  he  or  she  cannot  work  because  of 
the  presence  of  unbelievers;  but  the  Bible 
miracles  were,  practically  all  of  them,  wrought 
in  the  presence  of  unbelievers.  They  were 
wrought  for  the  sake  of  unbelievers,  that  the 
unbelievers  might  believe. 

As  I  have  just  been  saying,  the  genuine 
miracles,  the  miracles  of  the  Bible,  lead  to 
repentance,  to  restitution,  to  faith  and  joy; 
the  fictitious  miracles  lead  to  wonder  but  not 


170  Visions  and  Voices 

to  gladness.  The  people  say,  Let  us  go  again 
and  see  if  we  can  see  another.  They  do  not 
say,  We  have  seen  and  are  satisfied. 

In  the  accounts  of  the  founding  of  the 
church,  over  and  again  the  joy  of  the  disciples 
is  mentioned  as  a  distinguishing  characteris- 
tic. They  were  glad  because  they  were  saved. 
They  were  saved  because  they  believed  that 
what  Jesus  had  done  for  other  people  He  could 
do  for  them.  So  the  miracles  of  the  Word 
of  God  are  in  a  class  by  themselves,  differing 
absolutely  and  in  every  particular  from  these 
fraudulent  ones  which  are  taught  in  our  time. 

Which  Will  You  Have? 

Someone  has  said  that  life  is  a  series  of 
choices.  He  might  have  said  that  these 
choices  are  continuous,  that  each  moment  of 
conscious  existence  furnishes  its  alternative, 
and  compels  its  decisions. 

It  has  been  often  said — it  is  always  true — 
that  man  is  incurably  religious.  In  some  way 
or  other  he  must  get  to  what  he  believes  is 
divine.  He  is  never  satisfied  with  himself. 
He  is  conscious  of  his  need  and  he  is  con- 
scious of  his  sin.  Until  in  some  way  or  other 
he  is,  or  believes  himself  to  be,  in  the  presence 
of  a  helping  power  which  is  sufficient,  a  sav- 


Modern  Miracles  171 

ing  power  that  can  pardon  and  cleanse,  he  can 
have  no  rest.  "The  wicked  are  Hke  the 
troubled  sea,"  they  cannot  rest.  This  is  not 
because  of  some  baleful  design  on  the  part 
of  God,  but  because  of  the  nature  of  the  case. 
A  sinning  soul  is  as  much  out  of  harmony  with 
itself  as  it  is  out  of  harmony  with  the  will  of 
God.  Parallel  lines  never  cross.  Divergent 
lines,  in  the  same  plane,  must  first  or  last 
interfere. 

I  am  led  to  this  line  of  thought  by  the 
fact  that  man  must  have  a  God,  that  is,  some 
being  whom  he  looks  upon  as  equal  to  his 
need.  He  must  have  some  religion,  that  is, 
some  system  of  faith  and  practice  which  he 
thinks  will  conduct  to  virtue  and  happiness. 
He  must,  somewhere  or  other,  come  in  touch 
with  the  supernatural.  His  nature  requires 
that  he  should.  He  does  not  will  to  be  this 
kind  of  a  person.  He  has  been  made  this 
sort  of  a  person  and  he  cannot  change  his 
essential  being.  What  God  created  him  he 
will  remain;  therefore,  my  readers  and  the 
friends  of  my  readers  are  in  this  situation. 
They  must  accept  the  wonders  of  the  Word  or 
they  must  believe  these  fraudulent  miracles, 
which  by  various  systems  are  being  foisted 
upon    the    world.    It    is    not    a    question 


172  Visions  and  Voices 

whether  a  person  will  believe  in  miracles  or 
not.  Men  necessarily  believe  in  them,  that  is 
to  say,  they  believe  in  works  which  are  be- 
yond their  own  power.  No  sane  man  be- 
lieves that  he  causes  the  sun  to  shine.  No 
sane  man  believes  that  the  shining  sun  is 
without  a  cause.  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum, 
and  the  worst  emptiness  in  this  world  would 
be  an  emptiness  of  God.  All  other  emptiness 
may  be  endured,  but  this  would  be  fatal  to  the 
universe,  so  my  friends  must  choose. 

I  have  pften  referred  to  a  saying  of  a 
Wheaton  alumnus,  an  Iowa  judge  who  re- 
turned after  some  years  to  the  college  to  de- 
liver an  address.  I  remember  only  one  sen- 
tence which  he  uttered.  That  has  been  with 
me,  I  think,  a  thousand  times  since  I  heard 
him  say  it.  His  statement  was  this — "There 
are  some  persons  so  constituted  that  they  can 
believe  anything  except  the  truth/*  There  ii> 
not  a  particle  of  doubt  that  this  is  a  fact.  Some 
persons  are  so  constituted  that  they  can  believe 
anything  except  the  truth.  The  Bible  speaks 
of  certain  people  who  are  given  over  to  be- 
lieve a  lie.  What  a  frightful  thing  this  would 
be,  to  be  given  over  to  believe  a  lie,  so  that  the 
person  should  really  accept  it,  trust  it,  believe 
it,  though  it  was  a  lie. 


Modern  Miracles  173 

I  heard  a  sermon  recently  about  forgetting 
God.  The  preacher  concluded  the  sermon  by 
saying,  "What  is  the  end  of  forgetting  God?" 
Very  thoughtfully  and  solemnly  he  read  the 
words  of  Jeremiah:  "Therefore,  behold  I, 
even  I  will  utterly  forget  you  and  I  will 
forsake  you  and  the  city  that  I  gave  you  and 
your  fathers  and  will  cast  you  out  of  my  pres- 
ence and  I  will  bring  an  everlasting  reproach 
upon  you  and  a  perpetual  shame  which  shall 
not  be  forgotten"  (Jer.  23:39,  40).  The 
preacher  did  not  read  all  the  words  which  I 
have  written  here.  He  stopped  with  the  words 
"forget  you,"  but  because  all  are  related,  I 
choose  to  write  the  whole. 

God  says  that  His  people  go  into  captivity 
because  they  have  no  knowledge.  I  think 
most  unbelievers  consider  themselves  very 
well  informed.  They  think  they  are  unbe- 
lievers because  they  have  knowledge,  whereas 
God  says  they  are  unbelievers  because  they 
lack  it.  While  this  ignorance  is  general  and 
exhibited  in  many  ways,  I  think  there  is  no 
one  subject  of  which  unbelieving  men  are  so 
ignorant  as  they  are  of  the  Word  of  God. 

I  have  never  shunned  the  presence  of  or 
conversation  with  unbelieving  men.  I  have 
coveted  it,  both  for  my  own  information  and 


174  Visions  and  Voices 

in  the  hope  that  I  might  do  such  men  some 
little  good,  and  God  has,  from  time  to  time, 
rewarded  my  hope  and  faith  by  the  work  He 
has  been  willing  to  do  through  me.  I  mention 
this  fact  to  say  that  I  have  never  yet  known 
an  unbeliever  who  has  been  fairly  well  ac- 
quainted with  God's  Word.  A  peculiar  truth 
regarding  these  men  is,  however,  that  they, 
almost  all  of  them,  believe  themselves  to  be 
very  well  informed  concerning  it.  Over  and 
again  they  have  said  to  me,  "I  know  all  about 
the  Bible.  My  father  and  mother  made  me 
read  it  when  I  was  a  little  boy.  I  always  had 
to  go  to  church  and  Sunday  school.  I  got  too 
much  of  it.  I  have  studied  it  from  beginning 
to  end."  And  when  I  have  asked  them  the 
simplest  question  respecting  it,  instantly  their 
knowledge  has  dissolved  into  the  ignorance 
which  they  had  denied. 

I  remember  well  a  young  fellow  who  sat 
with  me  in  a  coach  on  the  Burlington  Line 
many  years  ago.  As  I  sat  down  and  we  en- 
tered into  conversation,  I  said  to  him,  "Are 
you  a  Christian  man?"  and  he  replied,  "No, 
I  am  a  Bob  Ingersoll  man."  I  said  to  him, 
"Why  are  you  a  Bob  Ingersoll  man?"  He 
said,  "Well,  I  am  down  on  the  Bible."  I  said, 
"Are  you;  why  are  you  down  on  the  Bible?" 


Modern  Miracles  175 

He  said,  "Because  it  justifies  crime."  *'Is 
that  possible?"  I  said.  "I  did  not  know  that. 
What  crimes  does  the  Bible  justify?"  He 
said,  "The  crime  of  adultery."  I  said,  "Is 
that  possible?  I  have  studied  the  Bible 
quite  a  bit.  I  never  found  that  place. 
Perhaps  you  will  show  me  the  place."  By 
this  time  I  had  taken  out  my  Bible  and 
handed  it  over  to  him.  He  colored  and  said, 
"Oh,  I  do  not  know  the  place,  but  I  know 
it  is  so."  "Why,"  I  said,  "I  am  very  much 
surprised.  I  did  not  know  that  it  was  so.  Per- 
haps this  is  the  verse  to  which  you  refer"; 
so  I  turned  to  Leviticus  20:10:  "The  adul- 
terer and  adulteress  shall  surely  be  put  to 
death."  "Perhaps  this  is  the  verse  you  had  in 
mind."  He  blushed  even  more  deeply  and 
said,  "No,  that  is  not  the  verse."  This  young 
man  knew  as  much  about  the  Bible  as  most 
unbelievers  with  whom  I  have  come  in  close 
contact. 

The  Book  of  Hezekiah. 

I  read  years  ago  of  an  unbeliever  who  was 
talking  with  a  humble  Christian  and  was  dis- 
cussing the  Bible.  The  unbeliever  said  that 
the  Bible  was  an  infamous  book;  that  it  was 
not  fit  to  be  read ;  that  it  ought  to  be  put  out 


176  Visions  and  Voices 

of  existence;  that  it  was  a  shame  for  a  man 
to  have  such  a  book  in  his  house.  The  Chris- 
tian man  said  to  him,  "You  do  not  think  the 
whole  Bible  is  as  bad  as  that,  do  you?"  He 
said,  "Indeed  I  do;  it  is  bad  from  beginning 
to  end.  It  is  not  fit  to  exist."  And  the  be- 
liever said  to  him,  "Well,  take  the  book  of 
Hezekiah.  Do  you  not  think  the  book  of 
Hezekiah  has  some  good  things  in  it?"  And 
he  replied,  "The  book  of  Hezekiah?  That  is 
the  meanest  book  there  is  in  the  whole  Bible." 
This  seemed  to  me,  at  the  time  I  first  read  it, 
doubtful,  so  twice  I  tried  the  trap  which  my 
friend  furnished,  on  some  unsuspectin'*  in- 
fidel with  whom  I  was  talking.  In  each  case 
the  unbeliever  declared  himself  to  be  well 
acquainted  with  the  Bible,  to  have  studied  it 
since  a  little  boy,  to  have  had  it  forced  upon 
him  by  parents  and  teachers,  to  have  been 
particularly  disgusted  with  it  because  he  found 
it  such  an  obnoxious  book;  and  each  time  I 
asked  him  about  the  book  of  Hezekiah  and 
each  time  he  said,  for  substance,  what  the 
narrator  of  the  incident  above  recorded  said; 
that  the  book  of  Hezekiah  was  about  the 
worst  book  there  was  in  the  Bible. 

We  are  shamelessly  negligent  of  the  Bible. 
We  ought  to  repent  and  do  far  better  than  we 


Modern  Miracles  177 

have  done;  but  unbelievers,  especially  those 
who  declare  themselves  to  be  thoroughly  well 
informed  about  the  Bible  are,  so  far  as  my 
observation  extends,  grossly  ignorant  of  all  its 
teachings. 

Which  of  the  Two  Will  You  Choose? 

Let  me  remind  you  once  more  for  yourself 
and  more  than  that,  for  your  friends,  that  men 
are  to  choose.  When  you  say  you  will  not 
choose,  you  choose.  When  you  say  you  will 
not  choose  until  tomorrow,  you  choose  today. 
You  are  at  liberty  to  choose  which  you  will 
but  you  are  not  at  liberty  not  to  choose;  so 
let  me  once  more  repeat,  Which  will  you  have 
this  wonderful  Book,  with  its  wonders  which 
are  so  natural,  which  were  so  necessary, 
which  are  so  necessary,  which  brought  such 
unmixed  gladness  to  those  who  experienced 
them;  or  will  you  have  the  emptiness  and  de- 
ceit of  some  false  system  which  comes  to  you 
in  some  hour  of  need,  when  you  must  have 
something  to  depend  upon,  and  offers  itself  to 
your  weakness,  perhaps  to  your  terror?  If 
you  will  not  have  God,  then  you  will  have  to 
put  up  with  yourself  and  with  the  false  gods 
which  men  who  feel  themselves  alone  in  the 
universe  are  certain  to  accept. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
A  FEW  WORDS  IN  CONCLUSION. 

All  of  my  friends  know  me  as  a  busy  man. 
I  began  my  life- task  when  I  was  twenty  years 
of  age  and  have  since  that  time  very  seldom 
known  what  it  was  to  have  a  day  of  idleness. 
Twice  it  has  seemed  that  I  must  rest,  and  God 
has,  through  generous  friends,  graciously  pro- 
vided for  the  need,  but  the  rule  has  been  that 
I  have  toiled  each  day,  oftentimes  through 
many  hours. 

I  did  not  for  years  find  myself  able  to  write 
books,  but  as  I  found  years  creeping  on — I 
ought  not  to  say  creeping,  rather  rushing — I 
saw  that  if  I  was  ever  to  leave  my  testimony 
in  accessible  form  for  those  who  were  to 
come  after  me,  I  must  be  about  the  work.  So 
I  have  written,  in  hurried,  imperfect  fashion, 
four  small  books,  each  of  them  dealing  with 
subjects  which  seemed  to  me  important.  In 
most  remarkable  ways  God  provided  me  pub- 
lishers, for  I  could  not  have  published  them 
at  my  own  expense;  and  what  was  more  de- 
lightful, perhaps  more  wonderful.  He  has  in 


A  Few  Words  in  Conclusion      179 

most  instances  provided  many  readers.  I 
have  received  over  and  again,  from  far-dis- 
tant places,  even  from  the  islands  of  the  sea, 
testimony  that  God  had  blessed  the  word 
which  He  gave  me  to  utter. 

This  has  encouraged  me  to  write  the  pages 
which  you  have  read.  I  have  always  been  in- 
terested in  books  on  the  truth  of  the  Word  of 
God.  This  question  seems  to  me  so  absolute- 
ly fundamental  that  I  have  availed  myself  of 
books,  little  and  large,  on  the  subject,  and 
expect  to  continue  to  do  so.  One  might  ask. 
Why  not  select  those  books  which  have  al- 
ready been  published  and  put  time  and  money 
into  the  circulation  of  them  and  in  this  way 
multiply  the  number  of  those  who  have  an 
unshaking  faith  in  this  unshakable  Book?  I 
reply,  as  I  have  respecting  a  former  publica- 
tion, that  I  could  not  do  any  large  work  in 
this  way  to  begin  with,  and,  if  I  did,  the  testi- 
mony would  not  be  mine  but  that  of  another. 
So  far  as  God  permits,  I  would  like  to  utter 
my  own  testimony,  to  have  men  know  some 
of  the  reasons  why  I  believe,  why  I  say  I  know 
the  Bible  to  be  God's  Word.  I  would  like 
to  have  all  the  people  who  trust  me  at  all 
share  with  me  in  the  faith  I  have  in  the  dis- 
puted things  in  this  marvelous  Book,  for  the 


i8o  Visions  and  Voices 

disputed  things  seem  to  me  oftentimes  the 
most  important. 

If  men  believe  in  the  miracles  of  the  Bible, 
they  are  not  likely  to  doubt  anything  else  they 
find  in  it.  If  men  believe  that  the  Bible  is 
really  inspired  of  God,  that  holy  men  of  old 
wrote  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
they  are  not  likely  to  treat  with  ignorant  con- 
tempt any  portions  of  such  a  Book ;  so  I  have, 
in  the  midst  of  many  cares  and  labors,  most 
imperfectly  written  the  words  which  are  here- 
in contained.  I  have  tested  them,  as  well  as 
I  am  able,  I  believe,  without  the  slightest  dis- 
position to  accept  anything  but  what  is  true. 

I  am  thankful  that  I  have  lived  to  write 
these  words,  for,  while  I  do  not  think  that 
men  are  generally  converted  by  arguments,  I 
know  that  men  are  often  confirmed  jn  a  faith 
which  they  have  inherited  or  received  without 
sufficient  examination,  by  having  exhibited  the 
truths  involved.  Therefore  I  am,  as  I  have 
said,  thankful  to  be  permitted  to  share  these 
reflections  with  my  fellow  travelers  to  the 
judgment  bar  of  God. 

I  do  not  believe  that,  apart  from  the  ques- 
tion of  personal  salvation,  any  more  important 
subject  will  ever  be  presented  to  the  mind  of 
a  rational  being  than  this  one,  "Who  wrote 


A  Few  Words  in  Conclusion      i8i 

the  Bible?"  When  we  reflect  on  what  the 
Bible  says  on  this  subject  for  itself,  how  con- 
tinually it  declares  itself  to  contain  the  word 
of  God,  and  not  the  word  of  man;  when  we 
remember  how  the  Holy  Spirit  Himself  has 
contrasted  the  written  Word  with  visions  and 
voices,  which,  important  in  their  time  and 
place,  are  nevertheless  less  important  than  the 
precious  words  which  God  has  written  for  our 
learning;  when  we  remember  how  the  Bible 
insists  on  the  possibility  of  knowledge  as  to 
the  great  questions  awakened  by  our  faith  so 
that  we  may  say  "I  know"  rather  than  "I  be- 
lieve"; when  we  consider  the  miraculous 
deeds  done  by  the  fathers,  recorded  in  this 
Book,  confirmed  by  so  many  infallible  tokens ; 
when  we  reflect  upon  the  prophecies  which 
have  been  already  fulfilled  and  meditate  upon 
those  which  yet  remain ;  when  we  think  of  the 
manner  in  which  God  stored  up,  under  heaps 
of  dirt,  in  distant  lands,  proofs  of  this  Book's 
truthful  character,  hiding  these  proofs  away 
from  the  eyes  of  men  for  thousands  of  years 
and  bringing  them  forth  in  our  time  and 
spreading  them  before  the  whole  world ;  when 
we  reflect  on  the  marvelous  diff"erence  between 
the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Bible  and  the  mir- 
acles recorded  by  the  false  faiths  of  our  time ; 


i82  Visions  and  Voices 

when  we  consider  what  the  Bible  has  done  for 
the  world,  what  it  has  done  for  us — I  think 
we  must  always  feel  that  we  have  here  a  price- 
less treasure,  a  pearl  of  great  price,  nay,  a 
string  of  pearls  forming  a  glorious  ornament 
fit  for  the  throat  of  a  queen  or  the  throne  of 
a  king. 

What  Follows? 

If  the  things  set  forth  in  this  little  book  are 
even  approximately  true,  it  follows  that  we, 
first,  should  make  this  Book  more  and  more 
the  man  of  our  counsel,  the  light  to  our  feet, 
the  lamp  to  our  path.  This  is  not  difficult, 
provided  we  are  determined.  If  we  are  not 
determined,  it  will  be  not  only  difficult  but  im- 
possible. Satan  will  furnish  a  thousand  rea- 
sons for  neglecting  the  Word  of  God,  if  we 
are  willing  to  have  him  lay  out  our  work.  The 
pressure  of  duty,  the  claims  of  pleasures,  all 
these  will  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  become 
men  and  women  of  the  Book,  unless  we  have 
determined  that  we  will  be.  If  we  are  so  de- 
termined, we  shall  be  able  to  find  time  or  make 
time,  and  the  helps  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
Word  are  now  more  abundant  and  more  inex- 
pensive than  ever  before.  He  who  wills  may 
know ;  he  who  wills  not  will  not  know. 


A  Few  Words  in  Conclusion        183 

In  the  second  place,  while  we  ought  to  know 
the  Book  better  than  we  do,  our  chief  failures 
have  been,  not  in  the  line  of  knowledge,  but 
in  the  line  of  obedience.  No  man  will  read 
these  words  who  has  not  known  better  than 
he  has  done.  I  have  known  far  better  than 
I  have  done.  So  while  knowledge  is  an  impor- 
tant thing,  obedience  is  all-important,  and  we 
shall  find  that  our  knowledge  of  the  Word 
will  be  broadened  and  heightened  and  intensi- 
fied by  every  effort  to  obey.  "Thy  words  have 
I  hid  in  my  heart  that  I  might  not  sin  against 
thee."  So  said  the  great  singer  of  Israel, 
so  we  also  should  say;  if  we  do  this,  we  shall 
find  that  hiding  God's  words  in  our  hearts  will 
accomplish  for  us  the  thing  which  David 
hoped  to  have  for  himself. 

And  third  and  last,  if  we  know  this  Book 
and  obey  this  Book  we  shall  find  it  so  beauti- 
ful, so  lovely,  that  we  shall  wish  with  our 
whole  hearts  to  pass  it  on  to  other  people. 
Heaven  and  earth  will  pass  away,  but  these 
words  which  God  has  spoken  through  His 
Spirit  and  through  His  Son  will  never  pass 
away. 

With  a  great  love  for  you,  whom  I  have 
never  seen,  whom  probably  I  shall  never  see, 
and  for  this  Word  which  I  have  seen,  which 


184  Visions  and  Voices 

I  have  imperfectly  known,  which  I  have  im- 
perfectly obeyed,  but  which  has  nevertheless 
wrought  for  me  so  many  blessings  that  I  can- 
not remember  nor  describe  them,  and  with 
the  desire  that  you  and  it  may  come  into  lov- 
ing fellowship  for  all  the  days  of  your  earthly 
life,  that  you  may  enjoy  the  Author  of  this 
Book  through  all  the  ages  of  eternity,  I  desire 
to  be  considered  in  the  love  and  work  of  Jesus 
your  true  and  faithful  friend. 


Date  Due 


"My  '1 1 


J 


